CHIPPING SPARROW. ' 497 



secondaries with pale brown ; the 1st and 2d row of coverts broadly 

 edged with bright bay and tipt with ichite. Tail dusky, forked, more 

 than 2^ inches long; centre of the belly and vent white. Bill black, 

 the under mandible yellow below the tip, | of an inch long. Legs 

 dusky brown, feet almost black, and robust. 



CHIPPING SPARROW. 



{Fringilla socialis^ WiLsojf, ii. p. 127. pi. 16. fig. 5. Phil. Museum, 



No. 6571.) 



Sp. Charact. — The 4 first primaries nearly of a length; frontlet 

 black ; crown chesnut ; chin and line over the eye whitish ; 

 breast and sides of the neck, pale ash ; bill black ; legs and feet 

 slender, pale flesh-color ; hind nail shorter than the toe. 



This species, with the Song-Sparrow, is probably the 

 most numerous, common, and familiar bird in the Unit- 

 ed States ; inhabiting from Labrador to the table land of 

 Mexico, and westward to the banks of the Missouri. 

 Aware of the many parasitic enemies of the feathered 

 race which it has to encounter, who prowl incessantly, 

 and particularly in quest of its eggs, it approaches almost 

 instinctively the precincts of houses, barns, and stables, 

 and frequently ventures into the centre of the noisy and 

 bustling city to seek, in the cultivated court, an asylum 

 for its expected progeny. Soon sensible of favor or im- 

 munity, it often occupies with its nest the thick shrubs 

 of the garden within a i^w yards of the neighbouring 

 habitation, by the side perhaps of a frequented walk, in 

 the low rose-bush, the lilac, or any other familiar plant 

 affording any degree of shelter or security, and will at 

 times regularly visit the threshold, the piazza, or farm 

 yard for the crumbs which intention or accident may 

 afford it. On other occasions, the orchard trees are 

 chosen for its habitation, or in the lonely woods, an ever- 

 green, cedar, or fir is selected for the purpose. It makes 

 no pretensions to song, but merely chips, in complaint, 



42* 



