The Negro world., 1900-03-31
THE SONG SPARROW.

ing on all hands, especially in the
neighborhood of water. They remain
until late autumn, and here and there
one will be found even in midwinter.
The song for which this sparrow is
particularly distinguished, is bright
and lively strain, nothing very great
in itself, perhaps, but thrice welcome
for being heard so early in the season,
when the ear is hungry after the long
winter silence. Its chief distinction,
however, is it's amazing variety. Not
only do no two birds sing precisely
alike, but the same birds sing many
tunes.
OF this latter fact, which I have
known some excellent people to be
skeptical about, you can readily salts
fly yourself-and there is nothing like
knowing a thing at first hand-if you
will take the pains to keep a singer
under your eye at the height of the
musical season. You will find that
he repeats one strain for perhaps a
dozen times, without the change of a
note; then suddenly he comes out
with a song entirely different. This
second song he win in turn drop for
third, and so on. The bird acts, for
all the world, as il he were singing
hymns, of so many verses each, one
after another.
1t is really a wonderful perform
ance. There are very few kinds of
birds that do anything like it. OF it.
self IL is enough to make the song
sparrow famous. and it Is well worth
anyone's while to hear it and see it
done. Nobody can see it without be-
lieving that birds have a true appre-
citation of music.
A lady correspondent was good
enough to send me, not long ago, a
pleasing account of the doings of a
pair of song-sparrows, which, as she
says, came to her for six seasons.
Zone year." she writes, "they hap
pened to build where l could watch
them from the window, and they did
very curious thing. They fed the
little birds with all sorts of worms of
different colors until they were ready
to leave the nest; then the male
brought pure white moth and held
il near the nest, which was in some
stems of a rose-bush few inches from
the ground. on a level with the lower
rail of picket fence.
"One of the little birds came out of
the nest at once, and followed it's
parent. who went sidewise. always
holding the dazzling white morsel Just
out of the youngsters reach. In this
manner they crossed the lane. climbed
the inclined plane of woodpile. and
passed through a fence and across a
vegetable garden into an asparagus
bed, in which miniature forest the
little traveller received and ate the
moth.
Another nest was built on the bank
of a brook on the farther side of n
road. Out of this nest saw two lit
tie fellows coaxed with these snow
white moths, and led across the dusty
road into a hedge" One or two ex-
periences of this kind are sufficient
reward for a good deal of patient OBJ
servation. The singer of this pair of
birds, my correspondent says, had ten
distinct songs.
The song-sparrow's nest is usually
built on the ground. and the bird is
one of several kinds that are known
indiscriminately by country people as
ground-sparrows.
Song-sparrows seem to he of pret.
ty nervous disposition. to judge from
their behavior. One of their notice
able characteristics is a twitching
up-aud-down. pumping motion of the
tail. as they dash into cover on be-
ing disturbed.
Readers who live in the southern
states see these birds only in the
cooler part of the year. but must have
abundant opportunity to hear them
sing as spring approaehes.-Br Bradford
Torrey, in Youths Companion.