1 14 Birds Every Child Should Know 
The field sparrow, as we have seen, prefers 
neglected old fields overgrown with bushes, 
but the vesper sparrow chooses more broad, 
open, breezy, grassy country. When busy 
picking up insects and seed on the ground, he 
takes no time for singing, but keeps steadily at 
work, unlike the vireos that sing between bites. 
With him music is a momentous matter to 
which he is quite willing to devote half an hour 
at a time. He usually mounts to a fence rail 
or a tree before beginning the repetitions of his 
lovely, serene vesper which is most likely to 
be heard about sunset, or at sunrise, if you are 
not a sleepy -head. Like the rose-breasted 
grosbeak, he has the delightful habit of singing 
through the early hours of the summer night. 
ENGLISH SPARROW 
Is there a boy or girl in America who does not 
already know this saucy, keen-witted little gamin 
who thrives where other birds would starve; 
who insists upon thrusting himself where he 
is not wanted, not only in other bird’s houses, 
but about the cornices, pillars, and shutters of 
our own, where his noise and dirt drive good 
housekeepers frantic ; who, without any weapons 
but his boldness and impudence to fight with, 
fears neither man nor beast, and who multi- 
