336 ORNITHOLOCxY AND OOLOGY. 



Female, yellowish beneath ; two stripes on the top of the head, and the upper 

 parts throughout, except the back of the neck and rump, and including all the wing 

 feathers generally, dark-brown, all edged with brownish-yellow; which becomes 

 wiiiter nearer the tips of the quills; the sides sparsely streaked with dark-brown, 

 and a similar stripe behind the eye; there is a superciliary and a median band of 

 yellow on the head. 



Length of male, seven and seventy one-hundredths inches; wing, three and 

 eighty-three one-hundredths; tail, three and fifteen one-hundredths inches. 



Hah. — Eastern United States to the high central plains. Seen fifty miles east 

 of Laramie. 



THIS very common and well-known bird is abundantly 

 scattered throughout southern New England as a sum- 

 mer visitor, and is not rare in most of the northern sections. 

 It seldom arrives before the 10th of May, when the males 

 precede the females about a week, and the nest is not built 

 before the last of that month. It is placed on the ground, 

 usually beneath a tussock of grass in a field or meadow, 

 and is very ingeniously and most often successfully con- 

 cealed : it is constructed of grasses, which are so loosely 

 arranged as to be hardly worth the dignity of the name of 

 nest. The eggs are usually four in number : they vary in 

 color from a light-brown with obscure spots of darker 

 brown, to a dirty-gray color with bold blotches of brownish- 

 black. Dimensions vary from .90 by .65 to .86 by .62 inch. 

 But one brood is reared in the season. This bird is no 

 great favorite in the southern portions of the United States, 

 because of its habit of visiting the rice-fields in immense 

 numbers, and devouring and destroying great quantities of 

 that grain ; but in New England it is a general favorite. Its 

 food while here consists of " all kinds of insects and worms," 

 " the various kinds of grass seeds," " crickets and grass- 

 hoppers, as well as beetles and spiders." 



The following interesting description of the general 

 habits of this species is given by Alexander Wilson : — 



" The winter residence of this species I suppose to be from 

 Mexico to the mouth of the Amazon, from whence, in hosts innu- 

 merable, they reguhirly issue every spring, perhaps to both hemi- 

 spheres ; extending their migrations northerly as far as the banks of 



