PERCHING BIRDS 
540. Vesper Sparrow. Pocecetes 
gramineus gramineus. 
Range. — Eastern United States, breeding from 
Virginia and Missouri north to Manitoba and 
New Brunswick; winters in the southern half 
of the United States. 
A streaked grayish, huffy 
and white bird distinguished 
by its chestnut shoulders and 
white outer tail feathers. 
They are abundant birds in 
eastern fields where their 
loud piping whistle is known 
to many frequenters of weedy 
pastures. They build on the ground, either 
in grassy or cultivated fields, lining the hollow 
scantily with grasses. Their four or five eggs 
are usually laid in May or June; they are dull 
whitish, blotched and splashed with light 
brown and lavender tints; size .80 x .60. 
540a. Western Vesper Sparrow. Pocecetes gramineus confinis. 
Range. — This paler variety is found in North America west of the Plains and 
south of Saskatchewan. 
Its nesting habits are like those of the preceding and the eggs are indistin- 
guishable. 
540b. Oregon Vesper Sparrow. Pocecetes gramineus affinis. 
A browner variety found on the coast of Oregon and northern California. 
Its nesting habits are like those of the eastern bird and the eggs similar but 
* * * English Sparrow. Passer 
domesticus. 
These birds, which were imported from 
Europe, have increased so rapidly that they 
have overrun the cities and villages of the coun- 
try and are doing inestimable damage both by 
driving out native insect 
eating birds and by their 
own destructiveness. They 
nest in all sorts of places 
but preferably behind 
blinds, where their un- 
sightly masses of straw 
protrude from between the 
slats, and their droppings besmirch the build- 
ings below; they breed at all seasons of the 
year, eggs having often been found in January, 
with several feet of snow on the ground and 
the mercury below zero. The eggs number from 
four to eight in a set and from four to eight 
sets a season; the eggs are whitish, spotted 
and blotched with shades of gray and black. 
Size .88 x .60. 
White 
averaging a trifle smaller. 
Vesper Sparrow 
Whitish 
McCown's Longspur 
335 
