40 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



TREE SPARROW 



Spizella monticola monticola ( Cniiclin) 



A. O. U. Xumher 559 See Color Plate 80 



Other Names. — Snow Chippy; Winter Chip-bird; 

 Winter Chippy; Tree Bunting; Canada Sparrow; 

 Arctic Chipper; Winter Sparrow. 



General Description. — Length, zVa inches. Upper 

 parts, gray, rusty, and black, streaked; under parts, 

 gray. Bill, small; wings, rather long and rather 

 pointed ; tail, shorter than wing, forked or double 

 rounded, the feathers narrow and blunt. 



Color. — .'Vdult : Crown, streak behind eye. and 

 patch on sides of chest, brownish ; hindneck, sides of 

 head and neck (except as described), and broad stripe 

 over eye, light gray ; chin and throat, similar but paler ; 

 breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, dull white, 

 the first with a dusky center spot or blotch at upper 

 edge, next to the pale grayish of the chest; sides and 

 flanks, pale wood brownish or brownish huffy; back 

 and shoulders, pale grayish huffy broadly streaked with 

 black and, more narrowly, with rusty ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts, plain hair-brown ; tail, grayish dusky, the 

 feathers conspicuously edged with pale gray or buffy 



gray; greater wing-coverts, broadly edged with rufous, 

 dusky centrally ; middle and greater wing-covcrts, 

 dusky, tipped zvith white, forming tzvo distinct bands; 

 iris, brown. Young : Crown, dull brown streaked with 

 blackish ; rump, pale bufify grayish indistinctly streaked 

 or mottled with dusky ; under parts, whitish tinged 

 with buffy on chest; the sides of throat, chest, breast, 

 and front portion of sides, streaked with dusky; other- 

 wise essentially like adults. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Located in low trees, 

 bushes or on ground ; constructed principally of dried 

 grass, strips of bark, moss, weed stems, and warmly 

 lined with feathers. Eggs : 3 to 5, pale greenish blue, 

 specked minutely and regularly over entire surface 

 with rufous brown. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, breeding in 

 Newfoundland, Labrador, and region about Hudson 

 Hay (limits of breeding range very imperfectly 

 known ) ; south in winter to South Carolina, Tennessee, 

 Oklahoma, etc. 



The word " tree " is misleading as applied to 

 the Tree Sparrow ; for the bird is most fre- 

 quently found on the ground, and does not even 

 nest in trees ordinarily. This is r)nlv one of very 



. by H. K. J.jb ('Murlt.-y -. 



TREE SPARROW 

 Feeding on window-sill 



many instances of strange inaccuracy in popular 

 nomenclature. The vernacular names "Arctic 

 Chipper " and " Winter Chip-bird " are, how- 

 ever, justified by the facts that the bird breeds in 

 the northland, and passes the v\'inter months in 

 the temperate zone. Indeed, the Tree Sparrow 

 and the Slate-colored Jtinco are the only native 

 members of the Sparrow family which may 

 fairlv be counted winter residents within the 

 United States. This, of course, excludes the 

 English Sparrow, " which does not deserve to be 

 considered as a bird, but rather as a feathered 

 rat," as Mr. Job says. The Tree Sparrow has 

 the further distinction of being one of the few 

 .Vmerican birds who sing real songs in real 

 \\inter weather, for its pleasing little Canary- 

 like ditty of tinkling notes is often heard in 

 February when there is both snow and blow 

 aplenty. 



The Western Tree Sparrow {SpiccIIa jiwnti- 

 fola ochracca) has decidedly longer wings and 

 tail than tlie eastern species and its coloration is 

 |)aler. It breeds from the valley of the Anderson 

 River, near the Arctic coast, westward through 

 -■\laska and southward for an tmdetermined dis- 

 tance. In the winter it comes south through 

 western North America to Arizona, Utah, Colo- 

 rado, and Texas. 



One-foiu-th ounce of weed seed per day is a 

 conservative estimate of the food of an adtiit 

 Tree Sparrow. On this basis, in a large agricul- 



