FIELD SPARROW. 



563. Spizella pusilla. 5^ inches. 



Bill pinkish-brown ; crown and ear covert brown with 

 no black markings; back reddish brown and breast and 

 bides washed witli brown. 



You will find these birds in dry pastures, stubble 

 fields and side hills. The hotter and dryer a place is, 

 the better they seem to like it. They are often the 

 only birds that will be found nesting on tracts of land 

 lecently burned over, upon which the sun beats down 

 with stifling heat. 



Song. — A series of shrill piping whistles on an as- 

 cending scale and terminating in a little trill, "swee- 

 see-see-se-e-e." 



Nest. — A frail structure of grasses and weeds, lined 

 with finer grasses; placed either on the ground or in 

 bushes, briars or weed patches; four or five whitish 

 eggs marked with reddish brown (.68 x .50). 



Range. — Breeds from the Gulf States north to south- 

 ern Canada ; winters in southern United States. 



Sub-species. — 563a. Western Field Sparrow (arena- 

 "ea), a paler race found on the Great Plains. 



