COMMON SONG-SPARROW. 



{Fringilla melodia, Wilson, ii. p. 125. pi. IG. fig. 4. Audubon, 

 pi. 25. Orn. Biog. i. p. 123. F.fasciata? Gmel. Phil. Museum, 

 No. 6573.) 



Sp. Charact. — Crown chesnut, divided by a greyish line ; breast 

 and flanks spotted with blackish-brown ; tail cuneiform, unspot- 

 ted ; 1st primary shortest: body above varied with^ blackish, 

 chesnut, and olive-grey. 



This familiar and almost domestic bird is one of the 

 most common and numerous Sparrows in the United 

 States; it is, also, with the Blue-Bird, which it seems to 

 accompany, one of the two earliest, sweetest, and most 

 enduring warblers. Though many pass on to the South- 

 ern States at the commencement of winter, yet a few 

 seem to brave the colds of New England, as long as the 

 snowy waste does not conceal their last resource of nutri- 

 ment. When the inundating storm, at length, arrives, 

 they no longer, in the sheltering swamps, and borders 

 of bushy streams, spend their time in gleaning an insuf- 

 ficient subsistence, but in the month of November, begin 

 to retire to the warmer states ; and here, on fine days, 



