208 LAND-BIRDS. 



a. About six inches long. A jjatch on the icing (the lesser 

 coverts), chestnut. The outer tail-feathers^ white. Above, 

 grayish brown, darkly streaked, most finely on the crown which 

 is not divided. Below, white (often buff-tinged) ; breast and 

 sides streaked with brown or black. Wings marked with bay. 

 Eye-ring, white. 



h. The nest is invariably placed on the ground, generally 

 in a pasture or field. It is lined with fine roots, dried grasses, 

 or horsehairs. In Massachusetts two sets of eggs are laid, 

 one in the last week of May or earlier, and the other a month 

 or more later, each containing four or five. These average .80 

 X .60 of an inch, but exhibit several variations in coloration. 

 One specimen before me is white, irregularly spotted and 

 blotched with a rather light reddish brown and extremely faint 

 lilac, and measures .87 X -65 of an inch. Another is dull livid 

 white, with fine but almost invisible markings scattered over 

 the eg^., and a few large umber brown spots, some of which 

 are surmounted with black. These forms are almost two ex- 

 tremes. A third has scrawls and vermiculations on it, and 

 there are still others entirely distinct in character. 



c. The Bay-winged Buntings, with the exception of the 

 Song Sparrows and " Chippers," and perhaps the Goldfinches, 

 are the most abundant members of their family to be found in 

 New England, during summer. Though they sometimes reach 

 eastern Massachusetts in March, they more commonly appear 

 in the second or third week of April, and become plenty before 

 May. Usually a few only can be found here in November, 

 the majority returning to the South in the preceding month. 

 A very few may possibly spend the winter in this State, but I 

 have never known them. In early spring, they are to be 

 found in fields, pastures, vegetable-gardens, and plowed 

 lands, often in association with other species, or gathered by 

 themselves. They are not so persistent in remaining on or 

 near the ground as the Savannah Sparrows (being rather less 

 nimble), are not so much confined as those birds are to certain 

 localities, and are not, I think, usually so common near the 

 sea-shore as in the interior. They have, however, a much 

 more limited distribution, being found in summer neither so 

 far to the northward nor southward. 



