The Fox Sparrows 



It is one thing, however, to discover our ownership and quite another 

 to collect our dues of opportunity for inspection, or exhibition of dis- 

 tinctive traits. The Fox Sparrows in winter are bafflingly modest. 



Taken 



: Carroll Islet 



SOOTY FOX SPARROW IN SUMMER 



Photo by the Author 



Their colors blend so perfectly with the leaf-strewn ground and the 

 dingy stems of the under chaparral, or else with the leaf-mold and rotting 

 logs of the northern under forest, that search with the eyes alone is 

 useless. Except for the circumstance of screeping (which is the bird- 

 man's trick, and "no fair" in a discussion of averages), meetings with 

 Fox Sparrows are rare or casual. But if you are much out-of-doors the 

 time will come, while you are footing it softly along some woodland 

 path, that a demure brown bird will hop out in front of you and look 

 unconcernedly for tid-bits before your very eyes. The bird is a little 

 larger than a Song Sparrow, but you will require a second glance to note 

 that the colors of the upperparts are smoothly blended, that the head 

 lacks the vague stripiness of Melospiza, and that the underparts are 

 spotted instead of streaked. Or, it may be, that you chance upon 



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