Species XIV. FRINGILLA FERRUGINEA* 



FOX-COLORED SPARROW. 



[Plate XXII. Fig. 4.] 



Rusty Bunting, Arct. Zool. p. 364, No. 231, lb. 233. — Ferruginous Finch, lb. 375, 

 No. 251. — Fringilla rufa, Bartram, p. 291. 



This plump and pretty species arrives in Pennsylvania from the 

 north about the twentieth of October ; frequents low sheltered thickets ; 

 associates in little flocks of ten or twelve, and is almost continually 

 scraping the ground, and rustling among the fallen leaves. I found 

 this bird numerous in November among the rich cultivated flats that 

 border the river Connecticut ; and was informed that it leaves those 

 places in spring. I also found it in the northern parts of the state of 

 Vermont. Along the borders of the great reed and cypress swamps 

 of Virginia, and North and South Carolina, as well as around the rice 

 plantations, I observed this bird very frequently. They also inhabit 

 Newfoundland. f They are rather of a solitary nature, seldom feeding 

 in the open fields ; but generally under thickets, or among tall rank 

 weeds on the edges .of fields. They sometimes associate with the Snow- 

 bird, but more generally keep by themselves. Their manners very 

 much resemble those of the Red-eyed, Bunting (Plate X., fig. 4); they 

 are silent, tame, and unsuspicious. They have generally no other not6 

 while here than a shep, shep; yet I suspect they have some song in the 

 places where they breed ; for I once heard a single one, a little before 

 the time they leave us, warble out a few very sweet low notes. 



The Fox-colored Sparrow is six inches long, and nine and a quarter 

 broad ; the upper part of the head and neck is cinereous, edged with rust 

 color ; back handsomely mottled with reddish brown and cinereous ; 

 wings and tail bright ferruginous ; the primaries dusky within and at 

 the tips, the first and second rows of coverts, tipped with white ; breast 

 and belly white ; the former, as well as the ear feathers, marked with 

 large blotches of bright bay, or reddish brown, and the beginning of the 

 belly with little arrow-shaped spots of black; the tail coverts and tail 



* Fringilla iliaca, Merrem, Beytr. ii., p. 40, t. 10. — Gmel. i., p. 923. — Lath. Ind. 

 Orn. I., p. 438. — Fringilla ferruginea, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 921. — Lath. Syn. iii., p. 

 272, 31.— Ibid. Ind. Orn. i., p. 445. 



t Pennant. 



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