arrow

Length about six and a half inches.

Striped on the back with bay, black, and gray; two white crossbars on
each wing, the edge of which is yellow; two white stripes on the black
crown, and a yellow spot before the eye.

Gray below, more slate-colored on the breast, with a pure white throat,
which is bounded by little black streaks.

A Summer Citizen of the Northern States and beyond. Spends the winter in
the Middle and Southern States.

Belongs to the guild of Weed Warriors, and is a bright, cheerful, useful
bird.

THE CHIPPING SPARROW

(THE CHIPPY. THE SOCIABLE BIRD)

"I know a Chippy now, when I see it, before you tell us anything about
it!" said Dodo gleefully. "There were three or four dear little ones
yesterday on the grass, near the dining-room window. They had velvety
brown caps on, and said 'chip, chip, chip' as they hopped along, and as
they didn't seem afraid of me I threw out some bread-crumbs and they
picked them up. Then I knew, to begin with, that they must be
seed-eating birds."

"How did you know that?" asked Nat. "Bread-crumbs aren't seeds!"

[Illustration: Chipping Sparrow.]

"No, but bread is made of ground-up wheat-seed! Don't you remember Olive
said so last week when she told us about all the grains?"

"Yes," said Nat reluctantly.

"Birds that won't eat seeds won't eat bread-crumbs either," continued
Dodo earnestly; "'cause I tried Wood Thrushes with bread-crumbs last
week and they simply turned up their noses at them."

Rap and Nat laughed at the idea of birds turning up their noses, but the
Doctor said:

"Very good indeed, Miss Dodo, you are learning to use your eyes and your
reason at the same time. Tell us some more about your Chippies."

"At first I didn't know what they were, and then they seemed like some
kind of Sparrows; so I went to the wonder room and looked at some of the
books that you left out on the low shelf for us. I couldn't find any
picture that matched, but then I began to read about Sparrows, and when
I came to Chippy Sparrow I was sure it matched; for the book said it was
a clever little fellow with a jaunty red cap that came with his mate to
the very door and that children make the Chippy's acquaintance and hunt
in the vines on the piazza or in a bush for its nest and that the nest
is very neat and made of horsehair--" Here Dodo stopped to get her
breath.

"Bravo! bravo!" called the Doctor. "I see that I shall soon have to
resign my place as B