Identifier: birdlifeguid00chap (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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and again about May 15.Thompson describes its song as like the latter half ofthe White-throats familiar refrain, repeated a numberof times with a peculiar sad cadence and in a clear, softwhistle. Some fine day about the middle of March you mayhear a song so unlike any you have ever heard, that be- Fox Sparrow ^ore tne smger ceases you will knowPasserdia Uiaca. you are on the verge of a discovery. Plate XLvii. The song is loud, exceedingly sweet;and varied. Its richness of tone seems to accentuate thebleakness of the birds surroundings. It is a song forsummer, not for leafless spring; but heard at this sea-son it seems all the more attractive, and with pleasurableexcitement you hasten toward the second growth, nearthe border of which the bird is perched. His large sizeand bright reddish brown upper parts readily distinguishhim from other Sparrows, and, in connection with hisspotted breast, give him a general resemblance to a HermitThrush, for which bird he is sometimes mistaken; but a
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Plate LV. Page 151. TOWHEE. Length, 8-35 inches. Adult male, upper parts, throat, and breast black;belly white; sides reddish brown. Adult female, similar, but black re-placed by brownish. JUNCO. 145 glance at his short, stout bill at once shows his family rela-tionships, and you should have no difficulty in identifyinghim as the Fox Sparrow. A month later he will leave us for his summer homein the far North, but in October and November hisringing notes may again be heard as he pauses a day ortwo on his journey southward. After the Fox Sparrows go, our bird-life is reduced to its winter elements—that is, permanent residents and win- Junco *er visitants. Of the latter the Junco junco hyemaiis. or Slate-colored Snowbird is the com- piate XLviii. monest and most generally distributed.Although we call this bird a winter visitant, he is withus nearly eight months in the year, arriving late in Sep-tember and remaining until early May. The Junco is one of the birds whose acquaintance canbe

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