147 



THE SONG-FINCH. 



-tFringilla melodia, Wils. 

 PLATE CLXXXIX Male and Female. 



The Song Sparrow is one of the most abundant of its tribe in Louisiana, 

 during winter. This abundance is easily accounted for by the circumstance 

 that it rears three broods in the year: — six in the first, five in the second, and 

 three in the third brood, making fourteen per annum from a single pair. 

 Supposing a couple to live in health, and enjoy the comforts necessary for 

 the bringing up of their young families, for a period of only ten years, 

 which is a moderate estimate for birds of this class, you will readily conceive 

 that a whole flock of Song Sparrows may in a very short time be produced 

 by them. 



Among the many wonders unveiled to us by the study of nature, there is 

 one which, long known to me, is not the less a marvel at the present moment. 

 I have never been able to conceive why a bird which produces more than 

 one brood in a season, should abandon its first nest to construct a new one, 

 as is the case with the present species; while other birds, such as the Osprey, 

 and various species of Swallows, rear many broods in the first nest which 

 they have made, which they return to after their long annual migrations, 

 repair, and render fit for the habitation of the young brood to be produced. 

 There is another fact which renders the question still more difficult to be 

 solved. I have generally found the nests of this Sparrow cleaner and more 

 perfect after the brood raised in them have made their departure, than the 

 nests of the other species of birds mentioned above are on such occasions; a 

 circumstance which would render it unnecessary for the Song Sparrow to 

 repair its nest. You are aware of the cleanliness of birds with respect to 

 their nests during the whole period occupied in rearing their young. You 

 know that the parents remove the excrements to a distance from them, so 

 long as these excrements are contained in a filmy kind of substance, of which 

 the old bird lays hold with its bill for that express purpose, frequently 

 carrying them off to a distance of forty or fifty yards, or even more. Well, 

 the Song Sparrow is among the cleanest of the clean. I have often watched 

 the young birds leaving the nest; and after their departure, have found it as 

 well fitted for the reception of a fresh set of eggs as the new nest which the 



