. 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 . species,such as are eaten by other Sparrows. It is particularly fondof beetles. It eats more ants than do most Sparrows, manycutworms, a few spiders, and some snails. The vegetablefood consists largely of the seeds of pigeon grass, panicgrass, wild rice, and marsh grasses. Vesper Sparrow. Grass Finch. Bay-winged Bunting. Pocccdcs gramineus gramineus. Length. — About six inch
. 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 . species,such as are eaten by other Sparrows. It is particularly fondof beetles. It eats more ants than do most Sparrows, manycutworms, a few spiders, and some snails. The vegetablefood consists largely of the seeds of pigeon grass, panicgrass, wild rice, and marsh grasses. Vesper Sparrow. Grass Finch. Bay-winged Bunting. Pocccdcs gramineus gramineus. Length. — About six inches. Adult.—Above, grayish-brown, finely streaked witli dusky; crown finelystreaked, but with no dividing line; cheeks bufTy, with a dark patch;a narrow white eye ring; below, whitish (bulfy where streaked), narrowlystreaked with brown or black on breast and sides; a bay patch near thebend of the wing; tail dark, moderately long; outer tail feathers white. — On ground. Egg^. — Dull white or buffy, with many spots, usually overlaid by large darkmarks and scrawls. Season. — April to October. The Vesper Si)arrow is, next to the Song Sparrow, themost abundant ground Sparrow in Massachusetts. It is gen-. Fig. 139. — Vesper Sparrow, one-half natural size. erally distributed wherever there are open fields and uplandpastures, but it is not a bird of the meadows, and is not ascommon in some parts of southeastern Massachusetts as else- 312 USEFUL BIRDS. where. It is not a dooryard l)ird, like the Chipping Spar-row or Song Sparrow, but prefers upland fields, hill pastures,and ploAved lands, at some distance from the farm is sometimes seen in yegetal)le gardens. It is not so closely confined to the ground as some otherground Sparrow^s, but perches on ridgepoles, wires, andtrees. It frequently runs along the ground in pastures orpotato fields, keeping just ahead of the observer as he the female is startled from her nest of young, she usesall her art
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1913
