SOMIO SPARROW SONGS. 
3 
some pine warblers poorer voices, so that it is sometimes 
impossible even for an expert to tell which is singing un¬ 
less he sees the bird. The artistic chipping sparrow im¬ 
parts some of that liquid, resonant quality to his tones 
which is characteristic of the typical song of the pine war¬ 
bler, and vice versa. 
A very singular variation in the form of the chipping 
sparrow’s song was observed two years ago in an individ¬ 
ual who nested in an adjacent lot. The song was for some 
time a puzzle. It was about nesting time when we first 
heard it, and the bird was very shy. Supposing him to be 
of some species hitherto unknown to us, we followed him 
up cautiously and discovered that he was our old friend 
chippie after all. His song, instead of being uninterrupt¬ 
ed, was every time broken into three parts of about equal 
length, just about like the telephone call No. 3, when the 
operator is getting out of patience and gives long strokes: 
n *—' -—- ~ •—■ 
— —. 
tre-e-e tre-e-e tre-e-e 
This is the only variation in form that I have yet noted in 
the song of this species. 
One of the sweetest and simplest of sparrow songs is that 
of chippie’s near relative—Burroughs calls him his coun¬ 
try cousin—the field sparrow. He is not so social as chip¬ 
pie and usually keeps a little way out of town. His song 
is a most beautiful succession of liquid tones at nearly the 
same pitch. It is what chippie’s song might be if he were 
to study the Italian method and learn to “place his tones,’’ 
as the cant musical phrase goes! He also has an intro¬ 
duction. It consists of four or more most persuasive, ten¬ 
der, heart-touching tones. This is followed by a monoto- 
