The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-07-13

nravest and Cherries, Minstrel o. Al
American Birds.

American Birds
The song sparrow Is the singer Of she
year Neither winter cold nor summer
heat has power to check his tunoAil Dc.
sires. In the February heIds. Wien The
snow still lies banked deep against the
combining fences rhe song sparrow vol
ces the promise OF spring before tie
robin and the biueblrd dare.
In August when every other uirj
voice is stilled and the earth is baked
and The grssn 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 Tor each new ress.ag
place. The search for sweet and ,.sr-
feet optimism ends with the song splt-
row.
The bird is nothing TO the eye ana
everything to the ear He dresses ia
drabs and browns. with streamngs OF
and bay ana ash. with white enough
below TO make prominent an ident,-
tying brown patch on the breast
The song sparrow gave the frost-
bound pilgrims OF the Plymouth Colony
the first sylabled hope that somewhere
beyond The awful winter lay the spring
Pie has been giving the same woid OF
hope TO every Northern farming house
hold for nearly three centuries. HE IS
the true herald OF the spring. notwlth-
Standing the fact tha; the robin and the
biuebird have that nonor OF men.
The robin and the bluebird are con-
spicuously beautiful; the song sparrow
is an ugly duckling, and while be pipes
his spring song for week before the
others come, tle ones in the fno rail-
) ment. as is the way OF things IN his
wo:ta, got the credit OF the welcome.
Tre song sparrow oaght TO have won
some songs ia return for his music. but
most OF the poets have been negiectful.
The song sparrow is known to the peo-
pie Of the country as the ground ord -
Poets as a fule are not ornithologists.
ano it is probable that when they have
caught dh, spafrows melody and have
he7r moved to questioning they have
Isen stopped from singing by the
earthly nan ? Of the 5ong3ter. Ground
bird, indeed The poet would have
none of it. for poets must soar. Not
all the human singers, however, have
I neglected the bird, though none Of
them has given It any length Of lines.
George Parsons Lathrop, who did
much mere 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 post to wicket
Hops the sparrow. blithe. sedatc;
Who, with meekly folded wing.
Comes to sun himself and sing
Mr.. Latnrop caught the manner OF
the sparrow and drew his proper pis-
ture. Let not every one, however look
h for the song sparrow at his garden
: gate. The birds presence there de-
pends altogether on the garden. Tie
, song sparrow shuns no man save the
\ man who makes artificial his surround
a lngs. II is tie oid-fashioned garden
with tangles here and tacre, that the
song sparrow loves. He does not dis
: pse the fruit garden. and though, like
s the soaring lark, he prefers to make
o his nest on the ground, he viii on occa-
s ion place 1t in the currant bush or in
; some thicket which the hand OF the
gardener has spared.
The song sparrow is one Of the few
}, American birds that are ftly named
h The scientists have classed the birds
properly and have given tsem prob
! ably correct naming in Latin, hut the
people in naming the fowls of the ar
y have played havoc with truth. Some
II OF our so-called thrushes are not
thrushes at all; our robin isn't robin;
I our nighthawk isn't a hawk. but our
song sparrow. praise be, is both a SPAR
= row and a songster
+. Schuyler Mathews, in his Field
e Book OF Wild Birds and Their Music,
declares that the song sparrow "de-
votes himself to pure, simple melody
ard is In consequence the best expon-
e ent of the song motive among all the
: members Of the feathered tribe
Mr. Mathews has made transcript.
ton OF the song OF the sparrow and
). has SET il down in notes so that man
% may play 1t upon his interpreting IN.
n struments He hnds a Swing and ac.
cent 20 these few tones which perfect.
ly express an exultant feeling, some
thing akin to that so eloquently given
IN the first bars OF Siegmands love
. song IN the Nibelungen Lied"
u John Burroughs interprets the sons
p sparrow's music thus: "swee-e-t
= swee-et. swee-e-t. bitter and then h'
: says that this is a simple but profound
% summing up Of life.
g And so il may be. but it shakes one.
y faith even in Burroughs 10 know tha
= he can find a suggestion OF bitterness y
the music Of the song sparrow.--CAi
. cago Evening Post.
n