500 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



The Small Brown Sparrow arrives in Pennsylvania 

 and New England from the Southern States, where it 

 passes the winter, in the beginning of April. It is with 

 us a shy, wild, and retiring species, partial to dry hills 

 and pastures, and open, bushy, secluded woods, living 

 much in trees. In autumn, indeed, the pair accompa- 

 nied by their brood in small flitting flocks, leave their 

 native wilds, and glean, at times, in the garden or orch- 

 ard ; yet but little is now seen of them, as they only ap- 

 proach cultivated grounds a few weeks before their de- 

 parture. These Sparrows, if indeed they are the same as 

 those described by Wilson, in winter, flock together in 

 great numbers in the Southern States, and mingling with 

 the Chipping Birds, and other species, they now line the 

 roads, fences, and straggling bushes, near the plantations 

 in such numbers, as, with their sober and brown livery, 

 to resemble almost a shower of rustling and falling leaves, 

 continually haunting the advancing steps of the travel- 

 ler, in hungry, active flocks, driven by the storms of 

 winter into this temporary and irksome exile. But, no 

 sooner does the return of early spring arrive, than they 

 flit entirely from the Southern wilds, to disperse in pairs 

 and seek out again their favorite native regions of the 

 North. 



The nest of this species, built on the ground, in the 

 mere shelter of some grassy tuft or accidental small bush, 

 is made often wholly of the fine stalks of dried grass ; 

 sometimes it is lined also with horse-hair. The eggs, 5 

 or 6, are so thickly sprinkled with ferruginous as to ap- 

 pear almost wholly of that color. They raise usually 

 two broods in a season in the Middle States. 



Our little bird has a pretty loud and shrill note, which 

 may be heard at a considerable distance, and possesses 

 some variety of tone and expression. Sometimes it is 



