THE FIELD SPARROW 



Finch Family — Fringillidce 



Length: About S^/o inches. 



General Appearance: A small brown bird with a reddish back 

 and bill, and a buff breast without spots or streaks. 



Male and Female: Top of head reddish-brown; sides of head, 

 nape of neck, and line over eye gray ; bill reddish- 

 brown; back reddish-brown, streaked with black and 

 gray; rump brownish-gray; wings and tail brown, 

 some wing-feathers edged with gray; sides and breast 

 washed with buff. 



Song: A sweet trill, consisting of the syllable dee repeated 

 a number of times. It varies with diflferent individ- 

 uals, but is phrased somewhat as follows: Dee' -dee'- 

 dee', de'-de, de'-de, de'-de, de'-d&, de'-de, de'-d^. 



Habitat: Old overgrown pastures containing clumps of bushes, 

 preferred to cultivated fields. This sparrow is not 

 accurately named, for it is not strictly a bird of the 

 fields. 



Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southern Min- 

 nesota, Michigan, Quebec, and Maine to central 

 Texas, Louisiana, and northern Florida; winters 

 from Missouri, Illinois, southern Pennsylvania, and 

 New Jersey to the Gulf Coast. 



SOME gorgeous but noisy birds, like blue jays, pea- 

 cocks, and parrots, please only the eye; many quietly- 

 dressed but sweet-voiced songsters are a delight to the 

 ear. To the latter class belongs the Field Sparrow, a 

 gentle little bird, so rarely seen as to recall to our minds 

 the lines: 



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