LAND BIRDS. 505 



6, 1906, he found a nest containing three eggs on Grand Island, Munising 

 Harbor, placed three feet from the ground in a small balsam. The nest 

 is much like that of other sparrows, and the eggs are four or five, bluish 

 white or grayish, thickly covered with reddish-brown markings, some- 

 times fine, often coarse; they average .83 by .59 inches. Often if not 

 usually, two broods are reared in a season, and the birds may be heard 

 singing well into August. 



The song is characteristic, and once heard is not likely to be forgotten. 

 It is fairly well suggested by the words "sow-wheat, peabody, peabody, 

 peabody," which is the song ascribed to it in New England, based on a 

 pretty story to the effect that a farmer named Peabody, doubtful as to the 

 proper time for sowing his wheat, was led to sow at once by hearing the song 

 of this bird at every corner of the field. Reaping a bountiful harvest that 

 year, he waited for the song of the bird in following seasons and his neighbors 

 eventually named the bird "Peabody's Bird." There is very great varia- 

 tion in the songs of individual birds and it is hard sometimes to make out 

 the above song. A fisherman friend declared that he never lost a fine trout 

 in a Michigan stream that he did not hear a little Inrd in the neighboring 

 swamp call "Oh dear, dear, dear, dear!" The song is peculiarly clear 

 and penetrating, and is heard at all hours of the day, and frequently during 

 the night. Seaton Thompson states that the White-throat is so well known 

 as a night singer that in many parts [of Manitoba] he is called the Nightin- 

 gale, and adds that he should not be surprised to find that the bird also 

 had an air song. We have no reason to suppose, however, that this Ijird 

 ever sings on the wing. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult (sexes nearly alike) : Top of head with a narrow median white stripe between 

 two broader black ones; a bright yellow stripe from nostril to above tlie eye, where it changes 

 to white and runs backward toward, but not to, the nape; below this stripe is a narrow 

 black one which starts behind the eye and ends on a line with the other five; chin and upper 

 throat pure white, usually edged with a narrow dusky line and surrounded by the deep 

 ash-gray which covers the sides of the head and neck, lower throat and chest, and in many 

 specimens extends along the sides; belly pure white; back warm brown or chestnut, streaked 

 with black, except on rump and upper tail-coverts; wings and tail similar to those of the two 

 l)rcccding. but browner, especially the secondaries and wing-e<)\erts; bend of the wing 

 bright yellow; bill dusky or bluish; iris brown. Immature: At first without yellow on 

 lu'iid 1)1- licml of wing; the head wit ii light brown in place of pure white, and the under parts 

 exccjit chill and belly, thickly streaked with dusky; later the streaks di8ap|)ear more or less 

 completely, and a little yellow apjiears over the eye and on the wing, but the distinctive 

 head markings (including the white tliroat) do not develop until the bird is at least a year 

 old, and many breed before attaining them. 



Length ().;-i() to 7.65 inches; wing 2.S() to .S.15; tail 3.05 to 3..35. 



230. Tree Sparrow. Spizella monticola monticola (C/wr/.). (559) 



Synonyms: Winter sparrow. Winter Chippy, Canada S])arrow. — Fringilla monticola' 

 Cimelin, 1789. — Fringilla canailensis, Nutt., Aud. — Fringilla aiborea, Wils. — Spizella 

 monticola of most authors. 



Similar to the Chipping Spaii'ow, but larger; crown chestnut, unstripetl; 

 breast grayish with a small blackish spot in the centei"; two white wing bars. 



Distribution. — P^astern North America, west to the Plains, and fi'om the 

 Arctic Ocean south in winter to the Carolinas, Kentucky and eastern Kansas, 

 l^reeds north of the ITnited States, east of the Rocky Mountains. 



Next to the English Sj)ai'i()W this ])i()l)ably is our most abundant and 

 univei'sally distributed wiutoi- bii-d. It comos to us fi'om tlie noilh in 

 Octoboi', usualh' after the middle of the inontli, and nin\' be fnnnd in var\-- 



