Pooecetes gramineus
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Adult.— Upper parts grayish brown, streaked with dark brown; breast and sides rather narrowly streaked, the streaks often forming a spot in the centre; sides of the throat narrowly streaked; cheek washed with buff; bend of wing bay; outer pair of tail feathers mostly white, the next partly white.
Nest, in a depression in grass or under clump of plants.
Eggs, dull white, buffy, or pinkish buffy, stained and speckled with reddish-brown.
The Vesper Sparrow is a common summer resident of New York and New England, though absent, of course, in the heavily forested regions of northern New England. Even here it appears in the upper valleys as soon as clearings are made and grass-land becomes extensive. The Vesper Sparrow arrives in early April, and stays till the middle or end of October. It frequents short-cropped pasture land, and the edges of cultivated fields. Here from a rock, a fence, or the limb of a tree, it sings its song, so often repeated toward evening that it has won for the bird its name.
Beginners have much difficulty in distinguishing the song of this sparrow from that of the Song Sparrow. The opening notes of the latter are very various, but are almost always three, rather brisk and high. Those of the Vesper Sparrow are two, low, long, and sweet; then after two higher notes the song runs off into a succession of trills, not musical in themselves, but aiding in giving the whole performance more dignity and sweetness than the Song Sparrow’s livelier effort. The time is distinctly slower, and the whole number of notes greater than in the Song Sparrow’s song. In certain regions the first of the opening notes is omitted, as in Berkshire County, Mass., and northern New England, or they are modified, as on Nantucket, where they resemble those of the Field Sparrow.
To distinguish between the Vesper Sparrow and the Song Sparrow, observe, if possible, the white outer tail-feathers of the former; these, however, are often not clearly visible, the bird must spread its tail fully to show them. One may also note the grayer shade of the Vesper Sparrow’s brown, the dusky cheek-patch, and the absence at the sides of the throat of the reddish-brown marks, which on the Song Sparrow form a triangle with the dark breast-spot. The Vesper Sparrow is a less nervous bird than the Song Sparrow; it often runs or squats before one, either in the road, where it dusts itself like a hen, or in the grass; the Song Sparrow darts with a jerk of its tail into the nearest bushes.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)