The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-08-02
TIE SONG Sparrow
srsvcst and cheeriest Minstrel Of Az
American Birds.


snow still lies banked deep against the
conhning fences. the song sparrow vol
ces the promise OF spring before the
robin and the bluebird dare
In August when every other uird
voice = stilled and the earth is baked
and the green is parched. the song
sparrow sings Of coming autumn rains.
In no month OF the year is he wholly
silent, and though storm and hunger
may force him TO long journeys he has
song ready for each new resting
place. The search for a sweet and per-
feet optimism ends with the song spar
row
The bird is nothing 10 the eye ard
everything to the ear He dresses in
drabs aud browns, with stroaMngs Of
and bay ana ash, with white enougn
below to make prominent an ldvnu-
lying brown patch on the breast
The song sparrow gave the FROST
bound pilgrims OF the Pnmouth Colony
The first sylabled hope that somewhere
beyond The awful winter lay the spring
He has been giving the same void oi
hope to every Northern farming house
hold for nearly three centuries. he IS
the true herald OF the spring. notwith-
standing the fact that the robin and the
hluebird have that honor OF men.
The robin and the bluebird are coa-
spicuously beautiful; the song sparrow
is an ugly duckrng, and while be pipes
his spring song for a week before the
| others come, tl,e ones in the fine raj
ment, as is the way of things in This
world, get the credit of the welcome.
The song sparrow ought to have won
some songs in return for his music, but
/ most OF the poets have been neglectiui
/ The song sparrow is known to the peo-
/ PIE of the country as the ground bird. +"
| Poets as a Tdle are not ognitholOgists,
and it is probable that when they have
/ caught the sparrows melody and have
/ been moved to questioning they have
Ieen stopped from singing by the
earthly name OF the songster Ground
bird. indeed The poet would have
none of it, for poets must sosr Not
all the human singers, however, nave
neglected the bird, though none Of
them has given 1t any length of lines.
George Parsons Lathrop. who did
much more in prose than in poetry, was
nevertheless moved out OF mis- wont TO
sing when he heard the spring song
sparrow at his garden gate.
Glimmers grey the leafless thicket
Close beside my garden gate.
Where, so light. from pos. TO wicket
Hops the sparrow. bithe, scddtc:
Who, with meeLly folded wing,
Comes to sun himself and sing.
Mr.. i-atnrop caught the manner OF
the sparrow and drew his proper pis-
ture Let not every one, however look
FOR the song sparrow at his gardeu
gate. The birds presence there de-
pends altogether on the garden. The
song sparrow shuns no man save the
man who makes artificial his surround
ings. IL is the oid-fashioned garden
with tangles here and there, that the
song sparrow loves. He does not dis
plse the fruit garden, and though, like
the soaring lark. he prefers to make
his nest on the ground, he will on occa-
ION place II in the currant bush cr in
Gome thicket which the hand of the
gardener has spared,
The song sparrow is one cf The , v
American birds that are ftly named
The scientists have classed the birds
properly and have given them prob
ably correct naming in Latin. but the
people in naming the fowls Of the aiI
have played havoc with truth Some
Of our so-called thrushes are not
thrushes at all: our robin isn't "a robin;
our nighthawk isn't hawk. but ouI
song sparrow, praise be, is both a SPAR
row and songster.
f. Schuyler Mathews. In his Field
Book OF Wild Birds aAd Their Music,
declares that the song sperrow de
votes himself to pure, simple melody
and is in consequence the best expon
ent OF the song motive among all this
members OF the feathered tribe
Mr. Mathews has made transcript
tlon OF the song OF the sparrow anI
has set Il down in notes so that a mar
may play It upon his interpreting IN
struments lie hnds a swing and ac
cent To these few tones which perfect
, ly express an eXultant feeling, some
thing akin TO that so eloquently giveI
IN the FIRST bars OF siegmund's lov'
song in the Nibelungen Lied"
John Burroughs interprets the son;
sparrow's music thus: "Swee-e-t
swee-et, swee-e-t, bitter and then n
says that this is a simple but profoun'
summing up OF life.
And so il may be, but IL shakes one
faith even in Burroughs to know tina
ne can fnd a suggestion OF bitterness ~
the music Of the song sparrow. Cal
, cago Evening Post.
The total agricultural area In th'
United States. il is estimated, is s4l,
100000 acres-an area larger thai