The Singing of Birds. B.P.BiokneU. 
’ -Bird" 
I 47 
swm* always ready ^ sowg-ttotes— for— aw^' day 
th at c e-irres-e^t-s-H-H-shi ny ai id - mi ld in -s udde n chan go fr om harder 
weatkwt. 
Melospiza fasciata. Song Sparrow. 
This familiar Sparrow sings with greater constancy through 
the seasons, and with less regard to adverse weather, than any 
other of our song-birds. All through the hottest summer 
weather it is songful, though the oppressive days of late August 
seem sorely to try its spirit ; but it recovers its cheerfulness with 
advancing autumn, and is one of the few birds which, in that 
season, repeats its full chorus of the spring. In every month of 
winter, too, I have heard its song. Not that it sings uninterrupt- 
edly throughout the year ; for there is an intermission of singing 
between November and February. But the general rule of 
silence for these two months is not infrequently transgressed. 
Its song is one of the first which the waking season brings ; 
though it is usually a little antedated by that of the Bluebird. 
Like the latter, the Song Sparrows are often in advance of the 
season, and early in the spring I have found them singing cheer- 
ily when the temperature was but little above zero (F.), and 
even when snow was falling thickly. 
The earliest songs of which I have record date January 25 and 
27. Ordinarily first songs are not until the middle of Feb- 
ruary, though it is not unusual to hear them after the first 
week of the month. In severe seasons they may be deferred 
until its latter days ; but I have never known silence to be kept 
longer, however inclement the weather. But universal singing 
with this species does not always proceed directly from the first 
song ; here the weather has much influence. Thus, in the year 
1879, the first song was on February 7, but up to the end of the 
month singing was intermittent and timorous only, and the 
confident spring song was not voiced until March 5. But when 
singing has become general, only the most adverse weather can 
reduce the joyous birds to silence. When the first songs are 
not until late in February, the impulse to sing is likely to 
become pretty general in a single week. The earliest songs are 
sometimes nothing more than feeble warblings without definite 
beginning or ending, but with favorable weather they quickly 
pass into the full-voiced aria of spring. 
