356 FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



6. Wing (male) 2.49-2.84 ; bill stouter. Atlantic watershed. 



melodia, p. 356. 

 6'. Wing (male) 2.58-2.91 ; bill more slender. Rocky Mountain 



plateau moiitaiia, p. 357. 



5'. Interscapulars without distinct brown streaks. 



6. Larger; wing (male) 2.45-2.60. San Clemente, San Miguel, 



and Santa Rosa Islands, California . clemeiitae, p. 359. 



6'. Smaller; wing (male) 2.29-2.41. Santa Barbara and Santa 



Cruz Islands, California gramiiiea, p. 358. 



581. Melospiza melodia (Wilson). SONG SPARROW. 



Adults. Crown brown, narrowly streaked with black and with a nar- 

 row gray median stripe ; scapulars and interscapulars streaked with black ; 

 wings and tail brown ; middle and greater wing coverts 

 brown, edged with lighter ; middle tail feathers with 

 blackish shaft streaks ; superciliary olive gray ; malar 

 stripe dull white or pale buffy ; under parts white ; chest 

 with wedge-shaped streaks of black edged with rusty 

 brown, forming an irregular median spot ; sides and 

 flanks streaked with black and rusty brown. Young: 

 like adults, but without gray on upper parts ; ground 

 color of back and scapulars buffy brownish or dull buffy ; 

 under parts duller white, often quite buffy, with the streaks narrower, 

 less distinct. Male: length (skins) 5.30-6.48, wing 2.49-2.84, tail 2.44- 

 2.79, bill .45-.S2. Female: length (skins) 5.15-6.10, wing 2.42-2.81, tail 

 2.19-2.77, bill .45-.51. 



Remarks. 'In summer the colors are grayer and streaks on chest nar- 

 rower, sometimes with brown edgings worn off ; in winter the general 

 coloration is browner, the brown more rusty, the gray more buffy. 



Distribution. -- Eastern United States west to the Rocky Mountains, 

 north to Norway House, Lake Winnipeg. 



Nest. In low bushes or on the ground, made chiefly of grasses lined 

 with slender stems. Eggs : 4 or 5, dull greenish white, spotted with red- 

 dish brown, sometimes concealing ground color. 

 Food. Mainly injurious insects and weed seed. 



As his name denotes, the song sparrow is one of the most tuneful 

 of the sparrow family. He is not a great or showy musician, but a 

 singer of songs, plain every-day home songs with the heart left in 

 them. His content and good cheer are so contagious that you wel- 

 come his voice wherever you hear it. And you may hear it in every 

 state of the Union, for, under whatever name he is known, he is a 

 song sparrow still. 



At Neah Bay, Washington, where the rainfall reaches the maxi- 

 mum for the United States, and the vegetation is dense and the soil 

 dark, we find him almost sable brown, but on the deserts of the 

 southwest his colors are pale sandy to match the light open ground. 

 Indeed, his coat is so sensitive to slight changes of environment 

 that lie is a sore problem to makers of subspecies. But whatever 

 trouble he unwittingly makes in the ornithological world, he is the 

 same quiet, gentle bird, sunning himself in the bushes, running over 

 the ground when attending to his affairs with wings close at his sides 



