WHITE-THROATED SPARROW 163 



While feeding, the flock keep up a cheerful twitter, each 

 bird repeating the syllables teel-tcit in a sweet, lively tone. 

 When startled the Tree Sparrow utters a slight tsip. This 

 note is also used as a call-note, and may be heard on dark 

 winter afternoons as the birds fly into weedy thickets to 

 spend the night. The song, uttered in March and April, and 

 occasionally in the autumn, is sweet and rather loud, be- 

 ginning with four long-drawn notes, ichee-hee-ho-hee (Lan- 

 gille). The form of the opening is like that of the Fox 

 Sparrow, but the notes are not so rich and powerful. 



In winter the Tree Sparrow may easily be distinguished 

 from any other wintering sparrow by its unstreaked breast, 

 chestnut crown, and white wing-bars. In October and April 

 it often associates with Chipping Sparrows and Field Spar- 

 rows, and from these two species it may be distinguished 

 by its greater size and the whiter wing-bars, but chiefly by a 

 dusky spot in the centre of the breast. 



White-throated Sparrow. Zonotrichia albicollis 

 6.74 



Ad. — Crown black, with a white stripe through the centre; a 

 broad white stripe over each eye, ending in a yellow line before 

 the eye ; back and wings rich reddish-brown; wing-bars white; a 

 square white throat-patch bounded by ash-gray; breast pale-gray; 

 belly white; sides of belly brownish; tail brown, with no tawny 

 tinge. Im. — Crown dark brown; stripe through middle of crown 

 very faint; line over eye dull buffy; yellow before eye dull; throat- 

 patch grayish-white. 



Nest, placed either on the ground, or in low bush. Eggs, heavily 

 spotted with pinkish-brown. 



The White-throated Sparrow is a common summer resi- 

 dent of the Canadian Zone, wherever balsam firs grow. In 

 southern and central New York and New England it is a 

 common migrant in late April and early May, and again in 

 late September and through October. A few White-throats 

 winter in southern New England and in the lower Hudson 



