Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 18:26:52 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Bonnie Ott Subject: Re: costs of gaudiness MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=Windows-874 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > Bonnie Ott, > Does this theory validate sparrows as the most likely to outlive us all? It depends on what "gaudy" means. I have always said the sparrow family is by far THE most spectacular! Their exquisite colors and patterning far surpasses any other group of birds. They are also smart enough to have chosen colors that are cryptic enough to make them less "obvious". Their songs are also the most beautiful lyrical compositions. How can any bird compete with the "Sweet Sweet Interlude" of the song sparrow? Only maybe a Vesper? A field sparrows tinkling trill? A fox sparrows gorgeous whistled song? A Lincoln's sparrow's ecstatic bubbling swirl? Bonnie Ott Howard County Field Trip Chair Ellicott City, MD bonnie1163@comcast.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================