LAND BIRDS. 511 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult in summer (sexes alike): "Wing and tail about the same length, the tail usually, 

 a little longer; upper parts without any rusty; top of head pale raw-umber brown, broadly 

 streaked witli black and divided by a distinct median stripe of light brownish-gi-ay; light 

 brown ear-coverts bordered above by a very distinct postocular streak of dark brown or 

 dusky, and along lower edge by a rictal streak of the same; whitish malar streak usually 

 bordered below by a more or less distinct grayish or brownish streak along each side of 

 throat; hind neck and sides of neck ashy, in more or less marked contrast with brown 

 of ear-coverts and crown; back light brown, broadly streaked with black. In winter the 

 colors much browner, obscuring gray of neck and strongly tinging chest and sides. Young: 

 Upper parts more buffy or 'clay-colored,' with blackish streaks broader and less sharply 

 ilefmed; dusky postocular and rictal streaks less distinct (sometimes nearly obsolete); 

 chest, sides and flanks, streaked with dusky. 



Length about 5 to 5.75 inches; wing 2.20 to 2.50; tail 2.30 to 2.60" (Ridgway). 



233. Field Sparrow. Spizella pusilla pusilla (Wils.). (563) 



Synonyms: Field Chippy, Bush Sparrow, Ground-bird, Ground Sparrow. — Fringilla 

 pusilla, Wilson, 1810. — Emljeriza pusilla, Aud. — Fringilla juncorum, Nutt. — Spizella 

 agrestis, Coues, 1875. — Spizella pusilla, Bonap., 1838, and most recent authors. 



Resembles both the Chipping Sparrow and the Tree Sparrow, but the 

 entire bill is reddish yellow, there are two conspicuous whitish wing-bars, 

 and the tail is longer than the wing. The head and back are reddish brown, 

 the latter streaked with blackish, and the under parts are ashy or soiled 

 white without any dark breast spot. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States and southern Canada, west to the 

 Plains, south to the Gulf States and Texas. Breeds from South Carolina, 

 southern Illinois and Kansas northward. 



The Field Sparrow is a common summer resident of old pastures grown 

 up to woods, and the edges of woods, throughout the southern half of the 

 state. It is one of the species very frequently confounded with others, 

 and in trying to map its exact distribution in the state the utmost difficulty 

 has been found. We have scattering reports of its presence not only all 

 over the Lower Peninsula, but from half a dozen points in the Upper 

 Peninsula, most of which are undoubtedly erroneous. We have perfectly 

 reliable reports from all the southern part of the Lower Peninsula as far 

 north as Bay county and Newaygo county, about 43|-°, and it was also foimd 

 sparingly in Crawford and Oscoda counties, by Wood and Frothingham, 

 in 1904. Mr. S. E. White states that from 1889 to 1891 it was fairly common 

 as a summer resident in certain localities on Mackinac Island. Probably 

 this must be considered one of its northernmost breeding places, for the writer 

 has searched for it personally in half a dozen places in the Upper Peninsula 

 without success, and among the thousands of birds killecl on Spectacle 

 Reef Light in northern Lake Huron, the Field Sparrow has never been 

 found. Blackwelder lists it from Iron county (Upper Peninsula) with the 

 remark that it is common only in the more settled regions where there are 

 open fields and hedges (Auk, XXVI, 369) ; Ruthven and Gaige failed to 

 find it in Dickinson county in the summer of 1909 (MS. Report). Like 

 half a dozen other sparrows it is known as "Ground Bird" and "Field 

 Sparrow," and probably the reports from the Upper Peninsula relate to 

 the Savanna Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow and Vesper Sparrow. 



It arrives from the south in April, the first part of tlie month in the 

 southern sections of the state, and the latter part farther north. Mr. Swales 

 gives his earliest spring record near Detroit as March 19, 1903, ^and his 



