158 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



and fall, the Song Sparrow utters from the weeds or corn- 

 fields a low warbling song, quite different from the ordinary 

 sprightly song. The ordinary alarm-note of the Song Spar- 

 row is a sharp tsch ik ; another very common note may be 

 written sst ; White-throats and Fox Sparrows both utter 

 notes similar to the last, but slightly heavier. The song is 

 subject to endless variation in the species, and varies to a 

 considerable degree even in the same individual, but it com- 

 monly begins with three brisk notes or pairs of notes, whit, 

 whit, whit, or o-lit o-lit o-lit, and in the middle of the song 

 there is apt to be a harsh burring note, after which the 

 song runs quickly out to some ending. 



The Song Sparrow is found wherever there are bushes, 

 but particularly near water. It is a brisk, active bird, but 

 not at all fond of the open, diving headlong into the nearest 

 tangle when alarmed. When in the bushes it is continu- 

 ally hopping about, with jerking movements of wing and 

 tail. Only when preening its feathers after a bath, or when 

 singing from the top of some low tree, does it sit quiet. 

 (See under Vesper Sparrow, p. 172, and under Savanna 

 Sparrow, p. 170.) 



Slate-colored Junco ; Snowbird. Junco hyemalis 

 6.27 



Ad. $. — Head, back, throat, and breast slate-gray, the latter 

 sharply defined from the white belly ; two outer tail-feathers and 

 part of the third, white. Ad. £. — The upper parts browner; 

 throat and breast paler. Im. — Upper parts, throat, and breast 

 streaked. 



Nest, often built in the side of road, or in a depression in a 

 bank, or on the ground. Eggs, white, spotted with brown. 



The Snowbird is a common winter resident of southern 

 Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the lower Hudson Val- 

 ley, and not uncommon along the Massachusetts coast as far 

 north as Boston. In the interior, where snow is deep during 



