Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-03
the fox sparrow scratched in the mold not
far away. ~
White-crowned sparTows.

the fox sparrow scratched In the mold not
far away. ss
White Crowned sparrows.
Often we hear the white throat whistling
sweetly and plaintively from the top of a
pine tree. 1t is song that once heard
is always remembered. In quality 1t is not
unlike that of the hermit thrush. Last
week a number of the white-crowned SPAR
rows spent days in our barnyard picking
up the seed which we always take good
care to scatter. This Is perhaps the hand
soonest of sparrows. The distinct black and
white markings about the head make this
and the preceding species conspicuous and
easy of Identification.
Goldfinches are numerous now in the near
orchards. The males are just donning their
yellow summer plumage. But more nu-
merous near the house are the purple
fnches, many of which have of late FREE
quented our orchard. The male is marked
out by his royal coloring, which is deepest
on the head, and becomes almost a rose
on the rump. He Is a superb songster. HIS
notes seem richer and more mellow than
those of most of the sparrows, and his song
is well sustained. "Blithe'' is the word
which to me best describes his performance.
The song Is but a part of his love-making.
One morning l saw male strutting ABOUT
on a rock for all the world like a ruffed
grouse, ruffiing his feathers ana beating his
wings sharply-a picture of Importance and
defiance. The challenge was accepted;
in an instant they were battling in the air.
The females are very different in color,
wearing the sober brown and white OF
the majority of the family, from which
they may be distinguished by their forked
tails. Their nests we shall probably find
later in the pine trees at a little distance
from the house.
Tribe of Tiny Warblers.
What shall 1 say of the warbiers, that
shy tribe of tiny migrants who camp in
trees for a day or two on their way
north, or who come to stay for the sum
mer in the deeper florists that clothe the
mountain of people? In May we see them by
the dozen and by the score; so small that
they seem but bird shapes in the tree-tops,
till under the glass they become little patch
work bits of brilliant yellow black or
blue.
To speak of all which fit past my house
would too much lengthen this list The
myrtle Gas he used to be called before
the A. O. w. got prudish) is the most con-
spicuous in color. The yellow warbler, the
black-throated blue the redstart, the oven
bird, the black-throated green. black and
white, Canadian and chestnut-sded are
others that 1 have seen from my window
this spring.
OF course, there are birds that are always
with us-chickadees and bluejays, and
downy woodpeckers nest within stones
throw of the house.
And beside the birds that we see there
are rarer bird voices that come to us from
the mountains and speak of neighbors who
are shyer. We hear the pilcated woodpeck-
er, rapping insistently against the tree holes
in the sugar bush; sometimes faint and far
off, like the beating of a heart at night
comes the drumming of the grouse; night
hawk calls from the twilight above us, the
whipporWill mourns plaintively from the
woods, and from the deeper parts of the
forest the owls boot to each other in the
dead of night. For it is spring and the
land is full of birds and bird voices
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.