File:Birds and nature in natural colors. (1913) (14565289490).jpg

Identifier: birdsnatureinnat04unse (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature in natural colors.
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: BHL-SIL-FEDLINK

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n contrast w^ith the exalted sentiment he utters. It is as though a clodtook voice and a soul escaped in song. Within certain pretty clearly defined limits the Field Sparrows song iscapable of great individual variation. Thus it becomes comparatively easy todistinguish a half dozen birds in a field by their songs alone. In some the open-ing notes are prolonged, as, Heezv, he-ezv, he-ezv, he-ew, hew, hew, hew, heheeeeee.In others they are distinctly doubled and have the accent transferred to the secondsyllable, Tu-eet , tu-eet , tii-eet, tii-ect, iveet, zieet, ivect, tr. One individualheard in August differed from all others in the neighborhood in having such adouble note, Cher-ie, cher-ie, cher-ie, tew, tew, etc. The following spring thesinger returned to the same station, and two others about a hundred yards awaydeveloped the same peculiarity. It is fair to suppose that these last were childrenof the first. A bushy pasture or undergrowth flanking the woods affords a suitable ref- 628
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uge for the Field Sparrow, or else it finds lodgment along- over-grown fences andin the ephemeral sprouts which line the road. The bird is rather shy and retir-ing, neither seeking the haunts of men nor courting observation in its bushlandhaunts. According to Dr. Howard Jones, The nests seem to be about equallydivided between the ground and the bushes. When in the former position alittle depression is chosen and the structure is neatly fitted into it with the rimabout level with the surrounding earth. When in the latter position it is placedin any arrangement of twigs that will support it; it is not built about and cabledto them as is the nest of the Summer Warbler, but it is simply loosely arrangedupon the stems or wedged in among them so that it will not topple over, andnearly always it can be lifted out without tearing it in the least. It is seldom ifever over five feet from the ground, and commonly is within two or three.Occasionally a nest is taken from the growing grass, which i

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