(_Po[oe]cetes gramineus_) Finch family
_Called also_: BAY-WINGED BUNTING; GRASSFINCH; GRASS-BIRD
_Length_--5.75 to 6.25 inches. A little smaller than the
English sparrow.
_Male and Female_--Brown above, streaked and varied with gray.
Lesser wing coverts bright rufous. Throat and breast whitish,
striped with dark brown. Underneath plain soiled white. Outer
tail-quills, which are its special mark of identification, are
partly white, but apparently wholly white as the bird flies.
_Range_--North America, especially common in eastern parts
from Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico. Winters south of Virginia.
_Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident.
Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows are the easiest to
classify for that very reason, and certain prominent features of the
half dozen commonest of the tribe make their identification simple
even to the merest novice. The distinguishing marks of this sparrow
that haunts open, breezy pasture lands and country waysides are its
bright, reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent among its dingy, pale
brownish-gray feathers, and its white tail-quills, shown as the bird
flies along the road ahead of you to light upon the fence-rail. It
rarely flies higher, even to sing its serene, pastoral strain, restful
as the twilight, of which, indeed, it seems to be the vocal
expression. How different from the ecstatic outburst of the song
sparrow! Pensive, but not sad, its long-drawn silvery notes continue
in quavers that float off unended like a trail of mist. The song is
suggestive of the thoughts that must come at evening to some New
England saint of humble station after a well-spent, soul-uplifting
day.
But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest and most sweetly in the
late afternoon and continues singing until only he and the
rose-breasted grosbeak break the silence of the early night, his is
one of the first voices to join the morning chorus. No "early worm,"
however, tempts him from his grassy nest, for the seeds in the pasture
lands and certain tiny insects that live among the grass furnish meals
at all hours. He simply delights in the cool, still morning and
evening hours and in giving voice to his enjoyment of them.
The vesper sparrow is preA"minently a grass-bird. It first opens its
eyes on the world in a nest neatly woven of grasses, laid on the
ground among the grass that shelters it and furnishes it with food and
its protective coloring. Only the grazing cattle know how many nests
and birds are hidden in their pastures. Like the meadowlarks, their
presence is not even suspected until a flock is flushed from its
feeding ground, only to return to the spot when you have passed on
your way. Like the meadowlark again, the vesper sparrow occasionally
sings as it soars upward from its grassy home.