Evening star., 1947-11-04
This and That
By Charles E. Trdce,0eU

CHEVY CHASE.
Dear Sir:
II have q sparrow which looks much like an
ordinary sparrow, and yet is different. It stays
here the whole time, and is very faithful. It
comes and goes but Is here most Of the time
"The head has gray and black on 1t, and the
underside is streaked with black. I am sure
this cannot be common sparrow, but do not
know what it Is.
There is something about this bird that is
distinctive, but I am not enough of an observer
to know what it is. Perhaps you can help me.
"If you can tell me what this bird is, I am
sure that I will be more interested in 1t.
Very truly, D. F. Y"
This bird is the song sparrow.
1t is friend of every suburban gardener,
remaining The year around, and being friend
of all the other birds.
Few species have been studied more, or had
more written about it, not because Of its
beauty, especially, but more because Of its
frjendliness its interesting habits and its song.
It is not disturbed by human beings or by
other birds.
Life 1t takes rather calmly.
In the summer it will hop close to ones chair,
and it is not much afraid Of the family dog
or cat.
1t may be watched bathing at a few feet.
One resident of this general community
Chevy Chase watched one of these best Of
sparrows bathe itself. He says it took five
seconds to dip, with three seconds of rest, and
that this whole program was repeated 81 times
before the bird got wet enough.
That, Of course, Is real bathing, but 1t is
merely the way this interesting specimen does
everything; the song sparrow is wholesome
creature, whether he nests eats, sings or bathes.
Larger than common sparrows, he never
theless makes no passes" at them, but lives
in amity with all species.
He is so friendly, unfortunately, that he is
one of the favorite preys Of the smaller hawks,
but after all only comparatively few Of these
birds are caught and eaten in a year in this
way.
In nature, certain allowance seems to have
been made in the beginning for disaster. Per-
haps human beings would do we'll, now and
then to refresh themselves in this natural
philosophy
The five baby squirrels who lost their mother
and were farmed out to helpful humans were
reduced to two within six weeks. One died in
two days, two others lived five weeks, but were
caught and killed by cat and dog, respec-
lively:
Nature has no social security, nor any other
kind, at least as ''stlre thing"
The song sparrow builds its nest low, very
low, often not more than two or three feet,
but usually in some sort of bush with spines
on it, such as the barberry.
Occasionally the song sparrow nest is put on
green, spotted with brown and lavender.
The song of this bird is simple, but deceptive,
in that it has literally hundreds of variations.
Some one has estimated that more than 1000
variations have been recognized
This is much to come from such small
throat, but the human listener who hears the
bird in the bitter cold Is wiling to believe il
possible, for this songster is real songster,
one which is able to be called "songbird" with
out any stretch of words or imagination. The
song is simple, but every one with phono-
graph knows how much real musical quality
the Hawaiians for instance, can get into a
song with only two or three notes in the theme.
The song sparrow is spread all over the
country but in each section he takes on slightly
different colorings, and even becomes larger
or smaller according to environment. Some Of
these are called the mountain song sparrow,
Merrilrs song sparrow, desert song sparrow,
Heermanns song sparrow, San Diego song
sparrow, San Clemente song sparrow, Santa
Barbara song sparrow, Samuel's song sparrow,
Mendocino song sparrow, rusty song sparrow.
sooty song sparrow. These last two are
Alaskan variations; others are the Yakutat,
Kenai Kodiak and the Aleutian song sparrows.
They were with American soldiers on many 3
lonely outpost.