The large size and handsome markings of this aristocratic-looking Northern sparrow would serve to distinguish him at once, did he not often consort with his equally fine-looking white-throated cousins while migrating, and so too often get overlooked. Sparrows are such gregarious birds that it is well to scrutinize every flock with especial care in the spring and autumn, when the rarer migrants are passing. This bird is more common in the high altitudes of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains than elsewhere in the United States.
There in the lonely forest it nests in low bushes or on the ground, and sings its full love song, as it does in the northern British provinces, along the Atlantic coast; but during the migrations it favors us only with selections from its repertoire. Mr. Ernest Thompson says, "Its usual song is like the latter half of the white-throat's familiar refrain, repeated a number of times with a peculiar, sad cadence and in a clear, soft whistle that is characteristic of the group." "The song is the loudest and most plaintive of all the sparrow songs," says John Burroughs. "It begins with the words fe-u, fe-u, fe-u, and runs off into trills and quavers like the song sparrow's, only much more touching." Colorado miners tell that this sparrow, like its white-throated relative, sings on the darkest nights. Often a score or more birds are heard singing at once after the habit of the European nightingales, which, however, choose to sing only in the moonlight.
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW (Zonotrichia albicollis) Finch family Called also: PEABODY BIRD; CANADA SPARROWLength -- 6.75 to 7 inches. Larger than the English sparrow.
Male and Female -- A black crown divided by narrow white line.
Yellow spot before the eye, and a white line, apparently running through it, passes backward to the nape. Conspicuous white throat. Chestnut back, varied with black and whitish.
Breast gray, growing lighter underneath. Wings edged with rufous and with two white cross-bars.
Range -- Eastern North America. Nests from Michigan and Massachusetts northward to Labrador. Winters from southern New England to Florida.
Migrations -- April. October. Abundant during migrations, and in many States a winter resident.
"I-I, Pea-body, Pea-body, Pea-body," are the syllables of the white-throat's song heard by the good New Englanders, who have a tradition that you must either be a Peabody or a nobody there; while just over the British border the bird is distinctly understood to say, "Swee-e-e-t Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a da." "All day, whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing," the Maine people declare he sings; and Hamilton Gibson told of a perplexed farmer, Peverly by name, who, as he stood in the field undecided as to what crop to plant, clearly heard the bird advise, "Sow wheat, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly."Such divergence of opinion, which is really slight compared with the verbal record of many birds' songs, only goes to show how little the sweetness of birds' music, like the perfume of a rose, depends upon a name.
In a family not distinguished for good looks, the white-throated sparrow is conspicuously handsome, especially after the spring moult. In midwinter the feathers grow dingy and the markings indistinct; but as the season advances, his colors are sure to brighten perceptibly, and before he takes the northward journey in April, any little lady sparrow might feel proud of the attentions of so fine-looking and sweet-voiced a lover. The black, white, and yellow markings on his head are now clear and beautiful. His figure is plump and aristocratic.
These sparrows are particularly sociable travellers, and cordially welcome many stragglers to their flocks -- not during the migrations only, but even when winter's snow affords only the barest gleanings above it. Then they boldly peck about the dog's plate by the kitchen door and enter the barn-yard, calling their feathered friends with a sharp tseep to follow them. Seeds and insects are their chosen food, and were they not well wrapped in an adipose coat under their feathers, there must be many a winter night when they would go shivering, supperless, to their perch.
In the dark of midnight one may sometimes hear the white-throat softly singing in its dreams.
GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDSTree Swallow Ruby-throated Humming-bird Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Solitary Vireo Red-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo Warbling Vireo Ovenbird Worm-eating Warbler Acadian Flycatcher Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Black-throated Green Warbler Look also among the Olive-brown Birds, especially for the Cuckoos, Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; and look in the yellow group, many of whose birds are olive also. See also females of the Red Crossbill, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager.
GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDSTREE SWALLOW (Tachycineta bicolor) Swallow family Called also: WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOWLength -- 5 to 6 inches. A little shorter than the English sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide wing spread.
Male -- Lustrous dark steel-green above; darker and shading into black on wings and tail, which is forked. Under parts soft white.
Female -- Duller than male.
Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama.
Migrations -- End of March. September or later. Summer resident.
"The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming." -- Jeremiah, viii. 7.
