. Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds . specially the pale brownish or flesh-colored bill. Theseare all good marks, and if now you can hear him sing hisidentity will be settled without question. His song is oneof the most pleasing I know. It is very simple but veryexpressive, a sweet, plaintive c/ie/-wee, cher-wee, cher-wee,eheeo dee-e-e-e-e, wdiich goes straight to ones heart. It issung most freely after sunset, and is in keeping with thepeacefulness of the evening hour. At this time, too, thebird seems inspired to more than usual effort, and its or-dinary song is often so ela
. Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds . specially the pale brownish or flesh-colored bill. Theseare all good marks, and if now you can hear him sing hisidentity will be settled without question. His song is oneof the most pleasing I know. It is very simple but veryexpressive, a sweet, plaintive c/ie/-wee, cher-wee, cher-wee,eheeo dee-e-e-e-e, wdiich goes straight to ones heart. It issung most freely after sunset, and is in keeping with thepeacefulness of the evening hour. At this time, too, thebird seems inspired to more than usual effort, and its or-dinary song is often so elaborated and prolonged as to bescarcely recognizable. The song season ends in the latter part of August,and, although the birds are with us until November, Ihave rarely heard them sing in the fall. The Vesper Sparrow, Grass Finch, or Bay-wingedBunting—for he bears all three names—prefers moreopen grounds than the Field Sparrow selects. There issomething free and spirited about this bird and its songwhich demands space for its proper development. No. Plate XLIV. VESPER SPARROW. Length, 610 inches. Upper parts grayish, black, and brown ; breast andsides streaked with black and brown ; belly white ; lesser wing-coverts chest-nut ; outer tail-feathers more or less white. 183 184 VESPER 8PARRUW. swamp or thicket will do for liim, but in g:reat broad fields lie is at home. If a roadway leads through his haunts, Vesper Sparrow, jou may often see him on the ground Foocmtes gramiueus. ahead of jou, and wlicu he flies the Plate XLI\. white feathers shown on either side of his tail will give you an excellent clew to his he will fly on ahead a little way and alightaffain in the road, or a lono-er flioht may lead him to aneighl)oring fence or the upper l)ranches of a more dis-tant tree. It is from positions of this kind that he mostoften sings. With him song is evidently a matter of im-portance, lie can not, like many l)irds, sing between themouthfuls of a meal, but asc
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