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THE SONG-FINCH. 
Fringilla melodia, Wils. 
PLATE CLXXSIX. — Male axd 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 
