. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. BIRDB OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 299 Song Sparrow. Ground Sparrow. Ground Bird. Melospiza cinerea melodia. Length. —About six and one-half inches. Adult Male. — Above, brown; tlie back streaked with a darker shade; top of head reddish-brown, mottled with blackish streaks; a streak of light gray- through center of crown and one over the eye; a dark line through eye and
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. BIRDB OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 299 Song Sparrow. Ground Sparrow. Ground Bird. Melospiza cinerea melodia. Length. —About six and one-half inches. Adult Male. — Above, brown; tlie back streaked with a darker shade; top of head reddish-brown, mottled with blackish streaks; a streak of light gray- through center of crown and one over the eye; a dark line through eye and two on the lower jaw; breast and sides whitish, spotted with dark brown, the spots usually massed in tlie center of breast, where they form a large spot or cluster; tail rounded and rather long. Nest. — Usually on ground or in bush, rarely in tree. Eggs. — Whitish, endlessly varied with browns. Season. — Resident, but not common in Fig. 131. —Song Sparrow, about two-thirda natural size. Few birds are better known than the Song Sparrow, and few are better friends to man. Those who do not know the bird will recognize it as the sweet singer of March and April, with a large blotch in the middle of its spotted breast. It prefers moist land near water, and may be found along the banks of brooks and the shores of ponds or rivers. The nest is often sunk in the sloping bank of some brook or ditch. According to Thoreau, its song, as expressed by the country people, runs thus: "Maids! maids! maids! hang on your tea- ; It has a charac- teristic chenk, evidently an alarm note, and several other notes. The Song Sparrow is at home in rich, moist gardens, and feeds among crops like cabbage and celery, which are often raised on lowlands. It is destructive to cabbage plant lice and cutworms. It eats some caterpillars of the gipsy moth, the brown-tail moth, and several of the hairless pests among the Geometrids. Leaf hoppers and spittle insects,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherb, booksubjectbirds
