The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-07-03

rfaveat and cheeriess Minstrel oloAa
American Birds.


year. Neither winter cold nor summer
heat has power to check his tunaful de
ares In the February fields. whm the
snow still lies banked deep against the
connning fences. the song sparrow vol
ces the promise Of spring before The
robin and the bluehird dare.
In August when every other pir5
voice ;s stilled and the earth is baked
and the green Is parched. the sonS
sparrow sings OF coming autumn rains
In 20 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 sweet and per-
feet optimism ends with the song spl,
row
The bird is nothing 70 the eye apu
everything to the ear. He dresses in
drabs ana browns. wah streaninss Of
ana bay and ash. with white enough
below to make prominent an lenu-
lying brown patch on the breast
rhe song sparrow gave the frcst-
bound pilgrims ot the Plymouth Colony
the hrst sylabled hope that somewhere
beyond the awful winter lay the spring
RE has been giving the same wo,d al
hope 10 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
bluebird have that honos oi men.
The robin and the bluebird are cou-
spicuously beautiful, the song sparrow
is an ugly duckling. and while be pipes
bis spring song for week before the
others come, the ones in ths nne Tai-
ment, as IL the way OF things in this
world. get the credit OF the welcome.
The song sparrow ought to have won
some songs in return Tor his music but
mosi CT the poets have been neglectfui.
The song sparrow is known 10 the peo-
pie of the country as the ground bird. /"
Poets IA a rule are not ornithclogists.
and IL in probable that when they have
caught uhe sparrow's melody and have
been moved to questioning they have
Sseeh stopped from singing by the
earthly name OF the songster. Ground
bird, indeed The poet would have
none OF il. for poets must soar. Not
ali the human singers. however, asvs
neglected the bird, though none of
them has given il any length Of lines.
George Parsons Lathrop. who did
much more in prose than in poetry, WIS
nevertheless meved out of mis- wont to
sing when he heard the spring song
sparrow at his garden gate.
Glimmers grey the leafless thschet
Close beside my garden gate,
Where. so light, from post 70 wicket,
Hops the sparrow. blithe, sedate,
Who, with meekly folGed wing,
Comes to sun himself and sing.
Mr. LaInrop caught the manner OF
the sparrow and drew his proper pls-
ture. Let not eve.y one however. look
for the song sparrow at his gardcu
gate. The birds presence there de-
rends altogether on the garden. Tie
song sparrow shuns no man save the
man who makes artificial his surround
ings. II is the oid-fashioned garden
with tangles here and there. that the
song sparrow loves. He does not dis
pise the fruit garden. and though, like
the soaring lark. he prefers to make
his nest on the ground, ne viii on occa-
lion place 1t in the currsnt bush cr in
some thicket which the hand OF the
gardener has spared
The song sparrow is one Of the few
American birds that are Etly 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 air
have played havoc with truth. Some
OF our so-called thrushes are not
thrnshes at all: our robin isn't robin;
our nighthawk isn't a hawk, but our
song sparrow. praise be, is both a spar
row and songster.
F. Schuyler Mathews, in his Field
Book of Wild Birds and Their Music,
declares that the song sparrow de
votes himself 70 pure. simple melody
and Is in consequence the best expon
ent OF the Bong motive among all ih'
members OF the feathered tribe
Mr. Mathews has made transcript
tion OF the song Of the sparrow ans
has set Il dowE in notes SO that a mar
may play It upon his Interpreting III
struments. He hnds swing and ac
cent to these few tones which perfect
" express an exultant feeling, some
thing akin to that so eloquently giveI
in the FIRST bars of Siegmunds low
song In the Nibelungen Lied,
John Burroughs interprets the soni
sparrow's music thus: "Swee-e-t
swes-et. swee-e-s. bitter and then h
says that this is simple but profoun'
summing vD OF life.
And so it may be, but Il shakes one
faith even In Burroughs 60 know tha
be can nnd a suggestion of bitterness il
the music OF the SONG sparrow. Cal
saEo Bvening Post
1