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THE WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW.
FRINGILLA LEUCOPIIRYS, BONAP.
MALE AND FEMALE.
IT is to the wild regions of Labrador that you must go, kind reader,
if you wish to form a personal acquaintance with the White-crowned
Sparrow. There in every secluded glen opening upon the boisterous
Gulf of St Lawrence, while amazed you glance over the wilderness that
extends around you, so dreary and desolate that the blood almost congeals
in your veins, you meet with this interesting bird. Your body is
sinking under the fatigue occasioned by your wading through beds of
moss, as extraordinary for their depth, as for the brilliancy of their tints,
and by the difficulties which you have encountered in forcing your way
through the tangled creeping pines, so dwarfish and so stubborn, that
you often find it easier to trample down their branches than to separate
them so as to allow you a passage. In such a place, when you are far
away from all that is dear to you, how cheering is it to hear the mellow
notes of a bird, that seems as if it had been sent expressly for the purpose
of relieving your mind from the heavy melancholy that bears it
down ! The sounds are so sweet, so refreshing, so soothing, so hope inspiring,
that as they come upon the soul in all their gentleness and joy,
the tears begin to flow from your eyes, the burden on your mind becomes
lighter, your heart expands, and you experience a pure delight, produced
by the invitation thus made to offer your humblest and most sincere thanks
to that all-wondrous Being, who has caused you to be there no doubt for
the purpose of becoming better acquainted with the operations of his
mighty power.
Thus it was with me, when, some time after I had been landed on the
dreary coast of Labrador, I for the first time heard the song of the
White-crowned Sparrow. I could not refrain from indulging in the
thought that, notwithstanding the many difficulties attending my attempts
—my mission I must call it—to study God's works in this wild region,
I was highly favoured. At every step, new objects presented themselves,
and whenever I rested, I enjoyed a delight never before experienced.
W H I T E - C R O W N E D S P A R R O W . 89
Humbly and fervently did I pray for a continuation of those blessings,
through which I now hoped to see my undertaking completed, and again
to join my ever-dear family.
I first became acquainted with the White-crowned Sparrow at Henderson,
in the autumn of 1817. I then thought it the handsomest bird
of its kind, and my opinion still is that none other known to me as a visiter
or inhabitant of the United States, exceeds it in beauty. I procured
five individuals, three of which were in full plumage and proved to be
males. The sex of the other two could not be ascertained ; but I have
since become convinced that these birds lose the white stripes on the head
in the winter season, when they might be supposed to be of a different
species. During spring and summer the male and the female are of equal
beauty, the former being only a little larger than the latter. The young
which I procured in Labrador, shewed the white stripes on the head as
they were fully fledged, and I think they retain those marks in autumn
longer than the old birds, of which the feathers have become much worn
at that season. In the winter of 1833, I procured at Charleston in
South Carolina, one in its brown livery.
One day, while near American Harbour, in Labrador, I observed a
pair of these birds frequently resorting to a small hummock of firs, where
I concluded they must have had a nest. After searching in vain, I intimated
my suspicion to my young friends, when we all crept through the
tangled branches, and examined the place, but without success. Determined,
however, to obtain our object, we returned with hatchets, cut
down every tree to its roots, removed each from the spot, pulled up all
the mosses between them, and completely cleared the place; yet no nest
did we find. Our disappointment was the greater that we saw the male
bird frequently flying about with food in its bill, no doubt intended for
its mate. In a short while, the pair came near us, and both were shot.
In the female we found an egg, which was pure white, but with the shell
yet soft and thin. On the 6th July, while my son was creeping among
some low bushes, to get a shot at some Red-throated Divers, he accidentally
started a female from her nest. It made much complaint. The nest
was placed in the moss, near the foot of a low fir, and was formed externally
of beautiful dry green moss, matted in bunches like the coarse hair
of some quadruped, internally of very fine dry grass, arranged with great
neatness, to the thickness of nearly half an inch, with a full linino- of delicate
fibrous roots of a rich transparent yellow. It was 5 inches in dia