ch, when there was dearth of other bird music.

But what about the song sparrows of Kansas? The first winter and
spring passed, and yet my numerous rambles in their haunts did not
bring to my waiting ear one first-class song sparrow concert. A few
feeble, half-hearted wisps of melody on days that were especially mild
were the only vocal performances they vouchsafed. To put it bluntly
and truthfully, I never, during my residence of five and a half years
in Kansas, heard a first-rate song sparrow trill. Nor is that all. In
the Buckeye state these birds were disposed to be sociable, often
selecting their dwellings near our suburban homes, visiting our
dooryards, singing their blithe roundels on the ridge of the barn roof
or a post of the garden fence. Not only so, but their songs were often
heard in some of the principal streets of towns where trees were
abundant.

[Illustration: Song Sparrow]

Quite otherwise was the conduct of their western cousins, which seldom
came to town or even near a human residence in the country, but kept
themselves ensconced in the matted copses in the banks of the Missouri
River or in the deep hollows running back from the broad valley. In
these sequestered haunts they were quite wary, usually scuttling out of
sight at my approach. True, in Ohio many individuals also chose
out-of-the-way places for habitats, but even then they were not timid,
for often they would mount to the top of a bush or a sapling in plain
sight and trill sweetly by the hour, with never a quaver of fear. At
rare intervals a Kansas sparrow would visit the thicket on the vacant
lot near my house, but, my! how shy he was! And as for singing, he
would only squeak a little score.

Wondering at the reticence of the Kansas sparrows, I wrote to a friend
living in Springfield, Ohio, my former home, and inquired what the song
sparrows were doing in that locality. His reply was that, as usual,
they had been singing with splendid effect on almost every day after
the middle of February. What is the reason of this difference between
the eastern and western birds? They are, according to the
systematists, the same type, and yet they behave so differently. The
solution of the problem is, after all, quite simple. In Kansas the
song sparrows are winter residents exclusively, passing farther north
when the breeding season approaches; only at rare intervals does a pair
decide to remain in the state throughout the summer; whe