Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

Unlike most of the sparrows, the little chippy frequents high trees, where its nest is built quite as often as in the low bushes of the garden. The horse-hair, which always lines the grassy cup that holds its greenish-blue, speckled eggs, is alone responsible for the name hair-bird, and not the chippy’s hair-like trill, as some suppose.

English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) Finch family

Called also: HOUSE SPARROW Length—6.33 inches. Male—Ashy above, with black and chestnut stripes on back and shoulders. Wings have chestnut and white bar, bordered by faint black line. Gray crown, bordered from the eye backward and on the nape by chestnut. Middle of throat and breast black. Underneath grayish white. Female— Paler; wing-bars indistinct, and without the black marking on throat and breast. Range—Around the world. Introduced and naturalized in America, Australia, New Zealand. Migrations—Constant resident.

“ Of course, no self-respecting ornithologist will condescend to enlarge his list by counting in the English sparrow— too pestiferous to mention,” writes Mr. H. E. Parkhurst, and yet of all bird neighbors is any one more within the scope of this book than the audacious little gamin that delights in the companionship of humans even in their most noisy city thoroughfares?

In a bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture it is shown that the progeny of a single pair of these sparrows might amount to 275,716,983,698 in ten years! Inasmuch as many pairs were liberated in the streets of Brooklyn, New York, in 1851, when the first importation was made, the day is evidently not far off when these birds, by no means meek, “shall inherit the earth.” In Australia Scotch thistles, English sparrows, and rabbits, three most unfortunate importations, have multiplied with equal rapidity until serious alarm fills the minds of the colonists. But in England a special committee appointed by the House of Com-

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mons to investigate the character of the alleged pest has yet to learn whether the sparrow’s services as an insect-destroyer do not outweigh the injury it does to fruit and grain.

Field Sparrow (Spiqella pusilla) Finch family Called also; FIELD BUNTING; WOOD SPARROW; BUSH SPARROW Length— 5. 5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English Male—Chestnutsparrow. crown. Upper back bright chestnut, finely streaked with black and ashy brown. Lower back more grayish. Whitish wing-bars. Cheeks, line over the eye, throat, pale brownish drab. Tail long. Underneath grayish white, tinged with palest buff on breast and sides. Bill Female—reddish.Paler; the crown edged with grayish. Range—North America, from British provinces to the Gulf, and westward to the plains. Winters from Illinois and Virginia southward. Migrations—April. November. Common summer resident.

Simply because both birds have chestnut crowns, the field sparrow is often mistaken for the dapper, sociable chippy; and, no doubt because it loves such heathery, grassy pastures as are dear to the vesper sparrow, and has bay wings and a sweet song, these two cousins also are often confused. The field sparrow has a more reddish-brown upper back than any of its small relatives; the absence of streaks on its breast and of the white tail quills so conspicuous in the vesper sparrow’s flight, sufficiently differentiate the two birds, while the red bill of the field sparrow is a positive mark of identification.

This bird of humble nature, that makes the scrubby pastures and uplands tuneful from early morning until after sunset, flies away with exasperating shyness as you approach. Alighting on a convenient branch, he lures you on with his clear, sweet song. Follow him, and he only hops about from bush to bush, farther and farther away, singing as he goes a variety of strains, which is one of the bird’s peculiarities. The song not only varies in individuals, but in different localities, which may be one reason 152

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

why no two ornithologists record it alike. Doubtless the chief reason for the amusing differences in the syllables into which the songs of birds are often translated in the books, is that the same notes actually sound differently to different individuals. Thus, to people in Massachusetts the white-throated sparrow seems to !“’ say, “Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y while good British subjects beyond the New England border hear him sing quite distinctly, “ Sweet Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a-da!” But however the opinions as to the syllables of the field sparrow’s song may differ, all are agreed as to its exquisite quality, that resembles the vesper sparrow’s tender, sweet melody. The song begins with three soft, wild whistles, and ends with a series of trills and quavers that gradually melt away into silence: a serene and restful strain as soothing as a hymn. Like the vesper sparrows, these birds sometimes build a plain, grassy nest, unprotected by overhanging bush, flat upon the ground. Possibly from a prudent fear of field-mice and snakes, the little mother most frequently lays her bluish-white, rufous-marked eggs in a nest placed in a bush of a bushy field. Hence John Burroughs has called the bird the “bush sparrow.”

Fox Sparrow (Passerella ilica) Finch family Called also: FOX-COLORED SPARROW; FERRUGINOUS

FINCH ; FOXY FINCH

Length—6.5 to 7.25 inches. Nearly an inch longer than the English sparrow. Male and Female—Upper parts reddish brown, varied with ash-gray, brightest on lower back, wings, and tail. Bluish slate about the head. Underneath whitish; the throat, breast, and sides heavily marked with arrow-heads and oblong dashes of reddish brown and blackish. Range—Alaska and Manitoba to southern United States. Winters chiefly south of Illinois and Virginia. Occasional stragglers remain north most of the winter. Migrations—March. November. Most common in the migrations.

There will be little difficulty in naming this largest, most plump and reddish of all the sparrows, whose fox-colored i53

Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

feathers, rather than any malicious cunning of its disposition, are responsible for the name it bears. The male bird is incomparably the finest singer of its gifted family. His faint tseep call-note gives no indication of his vocal powers that some bleak morning in early March suddenly send a thrill of pleasure through you. It is the most welcome “glad surprise” of all the spring. Without a preliminary twitter or throat-clearing of any sort, the full, rich, luscious tones, with just a tinge of plaintiveness in them, are poured forth with spontaneous abandon. Such a song at such a time is enough to summon anybody with a musical ear out of doors under the leaden skies to where the delicious notes issue from the leafless shrubbery by the roadside. Watch the singer until the song ends, when he will quite likely descend among the dead leaves on the ground and scratch among them like any barn-yard fowl, but somehow contriving to use both feet at once in the operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems to take special delight in damp thickets, where the insects with which he varies his seed diet are plentiful.

Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose flocks, apart by themselves, for they are not truly gregarious; but they may sometimes be seen travelling in company with their white-throated cousins. They are among the last birds to leave us in the late autumn or winter. Mr. Bicknell says that they seem indisposed to sing unless present in numbers. Indeed, they are little inclined to absolute solitude at any time, for even in the nesting season quite a colony of grassy nurseries may be found in the same meadow, and small companies haunt the roadside shrubbery during the migrations.

Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum passerinus) Finch family Called also: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW Length— 5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female—A cream-yellow line over the eye; centre of crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on back of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. All other upper parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab i54

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Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Erown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

wash. Underneath brownish drab on breast, shading to soiled white, and without streaks. Dusky, even, pointed tail Range—Easternfeathers haveNorthgrayish-whiteAmerica, fromouter Britishmargins.provinces to Cuba.

Winters south of the Carolinas. Migrations—April. October. Common summer resident..

It is safe to say that no other common bird is so frequently overlooked as this little sparrow, that keeps persistently to the grass and low bushes, and only faintly lifts up a weak, wiry voice that is usually attributed to some insect. At the bend of the wings only are the feathers really yellow, and even this bright shade often goes unnoticed as the bird runs shyly through an old dairy field or grassy pasture. You may all but step upon it before it takes wing and exhibits itself on the fence-rail, which is usually as far from the ground as it cares to go. If you are near enough to this perch you may overhear the ^m-e-e-e-e-e-e-e that has earned it the name of grasshopper sparrow. If you persistently follow it too closely, away it flies, then suddenly drops to the ground where a scrubby bush affords protection. A curious fact about this bird is that after you have once become acquainted with it, you find that instead of being a rare discovery, as you had supposed, it is apt to be a common resident of almost every field you walk through.

Savanna Sparrow (Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna Finch family Called also: SAVANNA BUNTING Length— 5. 5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female—Cheeks, space over the eye, and on the bend of the wings pale yellow. General effect of the upper parts brownish drab, streaked with black. Wings and tail dusky, the outer webs of the feathers margined with buff. Under parts white, heavily streaked with blackish and rufous, the marks on breast feathers being wedge-shaped. In the autumn the plumage is often suffused with a yellow tinge. Range—Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. Migrations—April.Winters south ofOctober.Illinois andA fewVirginia.remain in sheltered marshes at the north all winter.

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Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds

Look for the savanna sparrow in salt marshes, marshy or upland pastures, never far inland, and if you see a sparrowy bird, unusually white and heavily streaked beneath, and with pale yellow markings about the eye and on the bend of the wing, you may still make several guesses at its identity before the weak, little insect-like trill finally establishes it. Whoever can correctly name every sparrow and warbler on sight is a person to be envied, if, indeed, he exists at all.

In the lowlands of Nova Scotia and, in fact, of all the maritime provinces, this sparrow is the one that is perhaps most commonly seen. Every fence-rail has one perched upon it, singing ' ' Ptsip, ptsip, ptsip, ^ee-e-e-e-e ” close to the ear of the passer-by, who otherwise might not hear the low grasshopper-like song. At the north the bird somehow loses the shyness that makes it comparatively little known farther south. Depending upon the scrub and grass to conceal it, you may almost tread upon it before it startles you by its sudden rising with a whirring noise, only to drop to the ground again just as suddenly a few yards farther away, where it scuds among the underbrush and is lost to sight. Tall weeds and fence-rails are as high and exposed situations as it is likely to select while singing. It is most distinctively a ground bird, and flat upon the pasture or in a slightly hollowed cup it has the merest apology for a nest. Only a few wisps of grass are laid in the cavity to receive the pale-green eggs, that are covered most curiously with blotches of brown of many shapes and tints. Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus) Finch family

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