 
TREE SPARROW THE TREE SPARROWWhen lordly Winter stalks abroad With trailing robes of snow, That hide the lovely tender things His icy breath lays low; When grasses, shrubs, and hardy weeds Hold high their heads, and mock Their tyrant lord,—from Northland woods There come a merry flock Of feathered songsters, soft and brown With a dark spot on each breast. They sway on stalk of golden-rod Above a snowdrift’s crest. Their voices ring like tinkling bells Beneath the wintry sky, Till April, when with joyous songs Back to the North they fly. Such are the rollicking little Tree Sparrows, that whirl into our vision like an eddy of brown leaves. To the untrained observer, they are “just sparrows,” but to the “seeing eye” they are altogether more dainty and refined than English sparrows, and have different markings. Their little brown caps, the gray line over their bright eyes, their brown backs, white wing-bars, pale gray breasts and forked tails resemble those of their little cousins, the chipping sparrows. But the soft grayish-black spot on each tree sparrow’s breast is a difference. Careful comparison with the “Chippy” will show no straight black line extending from the eye, but a brown curve behind the eye that joins the one extending from the bill. The voices of winter chippies are infinitely sweeter than those of the door yard chippies and their English relatives. Their note is sweet and joyous. Mr. Forbush writes of their song as follows: “Tree Sparrows are among the few birds that can ‘look our winters in the face and sing.’ They are occasionally heard singing in November and December and late in February, when deep snow covers the ground. The song is among the sweetest of sparrow notes, but not very strong. It slightly resembles that of the Fox Dr. Judd says: “The tree sparrow breeds in Labrador and the Hudson Bay region and westward to Alaska. In the fall the birds come down from the north in immense throngs and spread over the United States as far south as South Carolina, Kansas, and Arizona. During the winter, in company with juncos, white-throats, white-crowns, and fox sparrows, they give life to the hedgerows, tangled thickets, and weed patches.... The food of the tree sparrow during its stay in the United States is almost entirely made up of seeds. The bird shows an essential difference from its associates, however, in its large consumption of grass seed, fully half of its food consisting of this element.... Nearly two-thirds of the vegetable food that is not grass seed is derived from such plants as ragweed, amaranth, lamb’s quarters, ... and a variety of seeds such as wild sunflower, goldenrod, chickweed, purslane, wood sorrel, violet, and sheep sorrel.” Professor Beal says that the oily seeds of such plants as ragweed cause the little bodies of tree sparrows to be encased in “a layer of fat constituting a set of under-flannels from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in thickness all over the bird’s body.” They are so warmly dressed that it is no wonder they are happy, cheerful, and active. A sight of them in a beautiful, snowy meadow is enough to repay one for the trouble of a quest. Pine siskins, REDPOLLS, SONG SPARROWS, WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS, PURPLE FINCHES, and GOLDFINCHES are other species of the large Finch family, or FringillidÆ, that may be seen during the winter months. The Pine siskin or PINE FINCH is a small brownish-gray bird streaked with black, and with buff edges to many of its feathers. The yellow in the wings and in the forked tail will distinguish it. The REDPOLL is a little brownish-gray bird with a red forehead, reddish breast and rump, black chin and throat. It has distinct dark streaks on its head, back, and under parts, except the breast. There are several species varying slightly in size and markings. The Song Sparrow is described on |
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