30 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
of darkness — and I have heard him many a time when 
I have been awake — he is sure to strike up a particu- 
larly shrill chirp just before the first glimmer of dawn 
appears. This is answered by a robin, then another 
robin perhaps, then a blue-bird, and so on, until all 
the feathered songsters are carolling their morning 
hymn of praise. 
“ The color of the hair-bird is very much like that 
of the song-sparrow, and he gets his peculiar name 
from his beautifully finished little nest, which is care- 
fully lined with the finest hair. It is generally built 
in a cedar bush, and has four or five light-blue eggs, 
with a few dots of purplish-black at the large end. 
“ This species of sparrow is not much of a singer, 
but he is a very sociable 
builds his nest in the branch< 
our streets and gardens, gleaning up crumbs from our 
yards, and even our doors, to feed his more advanced 
young with. I have known one of these birds attend 
regularly every day during a whole summer while 
the family were at dinner under a piazza fronting 
the garden, and pick up the crumbs that were thrown 
to him. This sociable habit, which continues chiefly 
during the summer, is a singular chaT^eristic. To- 
ward the end of summer he takes to the fields and 
hedges until the weather becomes severe with snow, 
when he departs for the South. 
