Identifier: birdlifeguidetos00chapman (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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tervals of each song. It is impossible to satisfactorily describe this song.It resembles that of the Song Sparrow, but is finer andwilder. It opens with one low note, followed by twohigher ones, while the Song Sj)arrow begins with threenotes, all of the same kind. The Vesper S)3arrow is migratory, coming to us withthe Field Sparrow early in April and remaining untilNovember. Its nest is placed on the ground, and thebluish or jHukish white speckled eggs are laid early inMay. It is strange, is it not, that the only bird we all detest should also be the only one who insists on sharing our homes with us. The House or English ouse parrow, Sparrow, is a product of tlie times : a J\lsx, r (Inlllint/CHS. . . . remarkably keen-witted bird, who, likea noxious weed, thrives and increases where a less hardyspecies could not exist. This harsh-voiced little gamin soon detects and avoidsanything like a systematic attempt to entrap him, and,being productive past all belief, seems likely to completely
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CHIPPING SPARROW.Length, 5-35 inches. Summer plumage, forehead black ; crown bright chest-nut ; back black, brown, and gray ; under parts grayish white ; bill black.Winter plumage, similar, but crown like back ; bill brownish. 185 l^Q CHIPPING SPARROW. overrun the land. He was introduced into this countryin 1851, and in 1870 was found only in the cities of theAtlantic States. Now lie has spread over the greaterpart of the United States and Canada. If he were restricted to the cities we should have onlyhis never-ceasing, maddening chatter and our soiled wallsto complain of; but he has invaded not only the townsand villages and the neighboring houses, but visits alsoour grain fields and fruit orchards, our woods and marshes.No effective method for his extermination has been de-vised, and I fear we must accept the Sparrow as a penaltyfor the shortsightedness and ignorance which permittedus to meddle with the laws of Nature. If we except this ever-present nuisance the Chippy is the most d

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