When the meadows are brown or flushed with green
And the lark's glad note rings clear,--
When the field sparrow's voice like a silver bell
Chimes a melody sweet to hear,--
A small brown bird with bay-capped wings
And feathers white in his tail,
Flutters along by a roadside hedge
And alights on a zigzag rail,
And breathes forth a song entrancing,
Of a beauty surpassed by few--
A wistful, plaintive, minor strain--
"O Sweetheart, I love you!"
When a mist of green o'erspreads the trees,
And corals and rubies gay
Are hung on the maple and red-bud boughs,
And the brooks are babbling away,--
When the setting sun goes down in a glow
Of the purest primrose gold,
And the pearly east reflects a flush
From the glories the west doth hold,--
This brown bird then, with a soul in his voice,
Sings to his mate so true
The tenderest song of the April choir--
"O Sweetheart, I love you!"
[Illustration: CHIPPING SPARROW]
THE CHIPPING SPARROW
_Finch Family--Fringillidæ_
Length: A little over 5 inches; the smallest of our common sparrows.
Male and Female: _Crown reddish-brown, bill black; a black line
extending through the eye_; a _gray line above the eye_; back,
wings, and tail brown; tail forked; rump gray; _breast pale gray
without streaks or spots_. In the fall, the reddish crown becomes
brown, streaked with black.