462 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



level fields, building their nests on the ground, chiefly 

 of fine withered grass. The eggs are 5 and white, with 

 specks and lines of dark brown or blackish. They also 

 inhabit the prairies of Missouri, the state of New York, 

 the remote northern regions of Hudson's Bay, and are 

 not uncommon in this part of New England, dwelling 

 here, however, almost exclusively in the high, fresh mead- 

 ows near the salt marshes. Their song, simple and mo- 

 notonous, according to Wilson, consists only of five notes, 

 or rather two ; the first being repeated twice and slowly, 

 the second thrice and rapidly, resembling islisp tship, tshe 

 tslic tsJie* ; with us their call is 'fie 'tic — tshe tshe tshe 

 tshlp, and tship tship, tshe tshe tshe tship. From their ar- 

 rival nearly to their departure, or for two or three months, 

 this note is perpetually heard from every level field of grain 

 or grass ; both sexes also often mount to the top of some 

 low tree of the orchard or meadow, and there continue to 

 cherup forth in unison their simple ditty for an hour at 

 a time. While thus engaged, they may be nearly ap- 

 proached without exhibiting any appearance of alarm or 

 suspicion, and though the species appears to be numer- 

 ous, they live in harmony, and rarely display any hos- 

 tility to the birds around them or amongst each other. 

 In August they become mute, and about the beginning 

 of September depart for the South, wintering probably 

 in some part of Mexico, as they are not seen in the 

 Southern States at any period of the winter. Their food 

 consists of seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel, and in the 

 early part of summer, they subsist much upon caterpillars 

 and small coleopterous insects ; they are, also, one among 

 the many usual destroyers of the ruinous canker-worm. 



This species is about 6 inches in length. The upper part of the 

 head is of a dusky greenish-yellow ; the neck dark ash ; inside 



* This note, I believe, more properly belongs to the Grass Finch. 



