Song sparrow

Recorded for LibriVox.org by David Lawrence.

The Song Sparrow's Appeal Naturalists tell us that of all creatures below man, the largest animal brain in proportion to the size of the body is found in horses and songbirds.

whatever sense beyond instinct the little creature of whom we write may have had something at least told it that it could obtain help at human hands a little sparrow the past season entered the kitchen of one of our country homes and perched upon the window-sill in evident distress its feathers were ruffled and its head ever and anon turned curiously about and up as if looking at something out of the house and above the window In and out it continued to hop, without intermission, regardless of all offers of food, until the shutters were closed at twilight, and various were the surmises as to the cause of its strange conduct.

Through the course of the following day the same scene was enacted, without any clue appearing as to the cause of its distress.

Chapter One: Bird Study.

The Song Sparrow.

Teacher's Story.

He does not wear a Joseph's coat of many colors, smart and gay; His suit is Quaker brown and gray With darker patches at his throat

The lesson might begin in March when we are all listening eagerly for bird voices, and the children should be asked to look out for a little brown bird which sings, "Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer," or as Thoreau interprets it, "Maids, maids, maids! Hang on the teakettle, teakettle, eddle, eddle." In early childhood, I learned to distinguish this sparrow by its teakettle song.

Besides this song, it has others quite as sweet, and when alarmed, it utters a sharp tachink, tachink.

The song sparrow prefers the neighborhood of brooks and ponds which are bordered with bushes, and also the hedges planted by nature along rail or other field fences, and it has a special liking for the shrubbery about gardens.

Its movements and flight are very characteristic.

Blue Jay, one for Mr. Robin, one for Mr. English Sparrow, and one for—I don't remember whether it was for Mr.

Song Sparrow or Mr. Bobolink.

Would you believe it? Every bird except the Bluebird had voted for himself.

The Bluebird knew because he knew the foot writing of all the birds.

Who, who, who would have thought it so simple a thing? He flew to the top of a great oak tree where he sat for a long time looking at the moon and saying, who, who, who.

Then the magpie took some long slender twigs and twined them round the outside.

That is just the thing, cried the song sparrow, and off he went.

And song sparrows still make their nests by twining twigs.

As I write these lines, I hear through the half-open door his call, come up from a distant field.

then i hear the steady hammering of one that has been for three days trying to penetrate the weather-boarding of the big ice-house by the river and to reach the sawdust filling for a nesting place section three The Phoebe and the Coming of Phoebe a poem another april bird whose memory i fondly cherish is the phoebe bird the pioneer of the fly-catchers in the inland farming districts i used to notice him on some bright morning about easter day proclaiming his arrival with much variety of motion and attitude from the peak of the barn or hay shed as yet you may have heard only the plaintive homesick note of the bluebird or the faint trill of the song sparrow and the phoebe's clear vivacious assurance of his veritable bodily presence among us again is welcomed by all ears At agreeable intervals in his lay, he describes a circle or an ellipse in the air, ostensibly prospecting for insects.

But really, I suspect, as an artistic flourish, thrown in to make up in some way for the deficiency of his musical performance.

If plainness of dress indicates powers of song, as it usually does, The Phoebe ought to be unrivaled in musical ability, for surely that ashen grey suit is the superlative of plainness, and that form, likewise, would hardly pass for a perfect figure of a bird.

a cowbird with a wren's egg in its beak, running rapidly along the walk, with the outraged wrens forming a procession behind it, screaming, scolding and gesticulating as only these voluble little birds can.

The cowbird had probably been surprised in the act of violating the nest, and the wrens were giving her a piece of their minds.

every cow-bird is reared at the expense of two or more song-birds for every one of these dusky little pedestrians there amid the grazing cattle there are two or more sparrows or vireos or warblers the less it is a big price to pay two larks for a bunting two sovereigns for a shilling but nature does not hesitate occasionally to contradict herself in just this way the young of the cowbird is disproportionately large and aggressive one might say hoggish when disturbed it will clasp the nest and scream and snap its beak threateningly One was hatched out in a song sparrow's nest, which was under my observation, and would soon have overridden and overborne the young sparrow, which came out of the shell a few hours later, had I not interfered from time to time and lent the young sparrow a helping hand.

Every day I would visit the nest and take the sparrow out from under the pot-bellied interloper, and place it on top so that presently it was able to hold its own against its enemy both birds became fledged and left the nest about the same time whether the race was an even one after that i know not section five

then i hear the steady hammering of one that has been for three days trying to penetrate the weather-boarding of the big ice-house by the river and to reach the sawdust filling for a nesting place section three

The Phoebe and the Coming of Phoebe a poem another april bird whose memory i fondly cherish is the phoebe bird the pioneer of the fly-catchers in the inland farming districts i used to notice him on some bright morning about easter day proclaiming his arrival with much variety of motion and attitude from the peak of the barn or hay shed as yet you may have heard only the plaintive homesick note of the bluebird or the faint trill of the song sparrow and the phoebe's clear vivacious assurance of his veritable bodily presence among us again is welcomed by all ears at agreeable intervals in his lay, he describes a circle or an ellipse in the air, ostensibly prospecting for insects, but really, I suspect, as an artistic flourish, thrown in to make up in some way for the deficiency of his musical performance.

If plainness of dress indicates powers of song, as it usually does, The Phoebe ought to be unrivalled in musical ability, for surely that ashen grey suit is the superlative of plainness, and that form, likewise, would hardly pass for a perfect figure of a bird.

The seasonableness of his coming, however, and his civil neighbourly ways, shall make up for all deficiencies in song and plumage.

It is a big price to pay.

Two larks for a bunting, two sovereigns for a shilling.

but nature does not hesitate occasionally to contradict herself in just this way the young of the cowbird is disproportionately large and aggressive one might say hoggish when disturbed it will clasp the nest and scream and snap its beak threateningly One was hatched out in a song sparrow's nest, which was under my observation, and would soon have overridden and overborne the young sparrow, which came out of the shell a few hours later, had I not interfered from time to time and lent the young sparrow a helping hand.

Every day I would visit the nest and take the sparrow out from under the pot-bellied interloper, and place it on top so that presently it was able to hold its own against its enemy both birds became fledged and left the nest about the same time whether the race was an even one after that i know not section five

The stars in quick succession, in ether, melt away, Until the brightest planet is lost in glowing day.

THE SONG SPARROW'S APPEAL Naturalists tell us that of all creatures below man, the largest animal brain in proportion to the size of the body is found in horses and songbirds.

whatever sense beyond instinct the little creature of whom we write may have had something at least told it that it could obtain help at human hands a little sparrow the past season entered the kitchen of one of our country homes and perched upon the window-sill in evident distress its feathers were ruffled and its head ever and anon turned curiously about and up as if looking at something out of the house and above the window In and out it continued to hop, without intermission, regardless of all offers of food, until the shutters were closed at twilight, and various were the surmises as to the cause of its strange conduct.

Through the course of the following day the same scene was enacted, without any clue appearing as to the cause of its distress.

Blue Jay, one for Mr. Robin, one for Mr. English Sparrow, and one for-- I don't remember whether it was for Mr.

Song Sparrow or Mr. Bobolink.

Would you believe it? Every bird except the Bluebird had voted for himself.

The Bluebird knew because he knew the foot writing of all the birds.

"Oh, that is all I need to know," said the wise owl.

"Who, who, who would have thought it so simple a thing?" He flew to the top of a great oak tree where he sat for a long time looking at the moon and saying, "Who, who, who?" Then the magpie took some long slender twigs and twined them round the outside.

"That is just the thing," cried the song sparrow, and off he went.

And song sparrows still make their nests by twining twigs.