160 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



Field Sparrow. Spizella i^usilla 



6.68 



Ad. — Top of head and back reddish-brown ; a rusty streak be- 

 hind the eye; cheeks otherwise grayish ; gray line over eye, but 

 no black line through it ; hill reddish-brown ; wing-bars whitish ; 

 under parts gray ; breast washed with pale buff. 



Nest, placed on the ground, or in a low bush. Eggs, white, with 

 brown markingrs. 



The Field Sparrow is a common summer resident of 

 southern New England and the lower Hudson Valley ; in 



northern New England it is confined to 

 the cleared land in the settlements, and it 

 is absent in the Canadian Zone. It arrives 

 early in April, and remains through Octo- 

 ber. There are several records of its occur- 

 rence in southern New England in winter. 

 Fig. 42. Field Q}j pastures, overgrown with high bushes 

 and cedars, and the edges of woodland are 

 its favorite resorts ; it is never a bird of the yard, or of the 

 cultivated fields. 



Its song is a fine strain, beginning with two or three 

 high sustained, piercing notes, then running into a succes- 

 sion of similar, more rapid notes, all in a minor key, and 

 often running down, or occasionally up, the chromatic scale. 

 Sometimes the last rapid notes rise, and occasionally one 

 note is repeated throughout. A beautiful form of the song, 

 often given towards evening, is made by a repetition of the 

 whole in a different key, as soon as the first part is ended. 

 The call-note is a tsip lighter than that of the Chipping 

 Sparrow. 



The reddish-hroiun hill of the Field Sparrow is the best 

 mark by which to distinguish it from the Chipping Spar- 

 row ; any one familiar with the bird soon learns also to 

 recognize a certain characteristic aspect of the side of its 

 head, where its black eye stands out in contrast with the 



