Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1917-02-15
Shhdstown Jefferson County, Thursday February 15 1917
The Song Sparrow.

EThe song sparrow is the true herald oi
the spring, notwithstanding the fact that
the robin and bluebird have that honor oi
men.
The song sparrow is the singer OF the
year. Neither winter cold nor summer
heat has power 10 check his tuneful de-
sires. In the February fields when The
snow still lies banked deep against the
confining fences the song sparrow voices
the promise OF spring before the robin
and the bluebird dare.
In August, when every other bird voice
is stilIed 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
sweet and perfect optimism ends with
the song sparrow.
The bird is nothing to the eye and
everything 10 the ear. He dresses in
drabs and browns. with streakings OF
black and bay and ash, with white enough
below to make prominent and identifying
brown patch on the breast.
The song sparrow gave the frost bound
pilgrims OF the Plymouth colony the first
syllabled hope that somewhere beyond
the awful winter lay the spring. He has
been giving the same word OF hope to
every northern farming household for
nearly three centuries.
The robin and the bluebIrd are con-
spicuously beautiful; the song sparrow is
an ugly duckling, and while he pipes his
spring song tor week before the others
come, the ones in fine raiment, as is the
way OF things in this world, get the credit
and the welcome.
The song sparrow ought TO have won
some songs in return OF his music; bu!
most OF the poets have been neglecttul.
George Parsons Lathrop, who did much
more in prose than poetry, was neverthe-
less moved out OF his wont to sing when
he heard the spring song sparrow at his
garden gate.
Glimmers gay the leailess thicket
Close beside my garden gate,
Where. so light from post 10 wicket
Hops the sparrow. bIithe, sedate,
Who, with meekly folded wing
Comes to sun himself and sing.
Mr.. Lathrop caught the manner OF the
sparrow and drew his proper picture.
Let not everyone, however, look for the
song sparrow at his garden gate. The
birds presence there depends altogether
on the garden. The song sparrow shuns
no man save the man who makes artificial
his surroundings. II is the od-fashioned
garden, with tangIes here and there, that
the song sparrow loves. He does not
despise the fruit garden, and though, like
the soaring lark, he prefers TO make his
nest on the ground, he on occasion will
place ii in the cunant bush or il some
Ticket which the hand ofthe gardener has
spared.
F. Schuyler Mathews in his "Field
Book OF Wild Birds and Their Music, -
declares that the song sparrow "devotes
himself TO pure, simple melody, and is in
consequence the best exponent OF the
song motive among all the members oi
the feathered tribe"
Mr.. Mathews has made transcription
OF the song OF the sparrow and has set |,
down in notes so that man may play il
upon his interpreting instruments He
finds "swing and accent 10 these few
tones which perfectly express an exult-
ant feeling, something akin TO that SC
eloquently given TO the first bars oi Sieg-
mund's love song in the Niebelungen
Lied"
John Boroughs interprets the song
sparrow smusicthu Swee-e-t, ,swee-e-t,
swee-e-t, bitter" and then he says thai
this is a simple but profound summing up
OF life.