FINCHES 



51 



grass, weed stems, leaves, lined with I'ine grass and 

 hair. Eggs; 4 or 5, dull pale greenish spotted thickly 

 or sparsely spotted or blotched with shades of reddish 

 or dark brown and lavender. 



Distribution. — Creeds in the United States (except 

 the .South .\tlantic and Gulf States), southern Canada, 

 southern .Alaska, and Me.xico; winters in .Alaska and 

 most of the United States southward. 



This is |ir(:)bahlv tlie licst known nf the vc-ry 

 large Sparrow family. It lacks the full meas- 

 ure of the Chipping Sparrow's pretty confidence 

 in the frienrJliness of man, and rather prefers 

 the fields and the roadsides to the immediate 

 vicinity of human habitations : htit against these 

 negative qualities are to be placed its more char- 

 acteristic plumage, and above all its real genitis 

 as a songster. Thousands of tiersons. old and 



young, who pay little or no heed to the song of 

 the I'ield Sparrow or the \''esi)er S[)arrow or the 

 l""ox Sparrow, recognize instantly the character- 

 istic little motif of the Song Sparrow. .And the 

 bird lays an additional claim on the friendship 

 and sympathy of all, by the fact that it is a 

 freqtient winter resident in the northern .States. 

 Though to untrained observation confusingly 

 like some of the other Sparrows, this birfl should 



N> 



/n I 





Hhuto of a mounted t;roup in the Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. Omrlesy of Nat. Asso. Aud. Soc. 



CENTERS OF DISTRIBUTION OF SEVEN OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL RACES OF THE SONG SPARROW 

 z. Aleutian; 2. Sooty; 3. Heermann's; 4. Mountain; 5- Desert; 6. Mexican; 7- Eastern 



