. 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 . nly injurious 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 gramineus. Length. — About six
. 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 . nly injurious 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 gramineus. Length. — About six inches. Adult. — Above, grayish-brown, finely streaked witli dusky; crown finelystreaked, but with no dividmg line; cheeks huffy, with a dark patch;a narrow white eye ring; below, whitish (huffy 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. Nest. — On ground. Eggs. — Dull white or huffy, with many spots, usually overlaid by large darkmarks and scrawls. Season.—April to October. The Vesper Sparrow 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 BIliLS. where. It is not a dooryard l)ird, like the Chipping Spar-row or Song Sparrow, but prefers upland fields, hill pastures,and plowed lands, at some distance from the farm is sometimes seen in vegetable gardens. It is not so closely confined to the ground as some otherground Sparrows, 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 use
Size: 1633px × 1530px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidusefulbi, booksubjectbirds
