380 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 



cheeks; sides of liead and neck otherwise ashy-gray. Below, impurely whitish, tinged with 

 ashy anteriorly, waslied with pale brow-nish posteriorly, the middle of the breast with an obscure 

 dusky blotch. Middle of back boldly streaked with black, bay, and flaxen ; middle and greater 

 wing-coverts black, edged with bay and tipped with white, forming two conspicuous cross-bars ; 

 inner secondaries similarly variegated ; other quills and tail-feathers plain dusky, mth pale or 

 whitish edges. Remarkably constant in coloration ; sexes indistinguishable, and young very 

 similar, the chief variation being in the veiling of the cap with gray. There is a very early 

 streaky stage, liowever, as in other species. A handsome sparrow, the largest of the genus. 

 Length 5.S0-G.20, usually 6.00; extent 8.75-9-75, usually 9.25 ; wing and tail 2.75-3.10. 

 Abundant in the U. S. in winter, flocking in shrubbery; breeds in mountainous and boreal 

 regions, even to the Arctic coast. Infrequent or casual west of the Rocky Mts. Nest in low 

 bushes or on the ground, loosely constructed of bark-strips, weeds, and grasses, warmly 

 lined with feathers. Eggs 4-G or even 7, pale green, minutely and regularly sprinkled with 

 reddish-brown spt>ts. 



269. S. domes'tica. (Lat. domestica, domestic. Figs. 237, 238.) Chipping Sparrow. Chip- 

 bird or Chippy. Hair-bird. Adult: Bill black ; feet pale; crown chestnut ; extreme fore- 

 head black, usually divided by a pale line ; a grayish-white superciliary line ; below this a 



blackish stripe through eye and over auriculars ; 

 lores dusky. Below, a variable shade of pale ash, 

 nearly uniform and entirely unmarked ; back 

 streaked with black, dull bay and grayish-brown ; 

 inner secondaries and wing-coverts similarly vari- 

 egated, the tips of the greater and median coverts 

 forming whitish bars; rump ashy, with slight 

 blackish streaks or none; primaries and tail- 

 feathers dusky, with paler edges. Smaller: 

 length 5.00-5.50; extent S.00-9.00; wing 2.G6- 

 2 75 ; tail less, about 2.50. Sexes alike, but very 

 \ oung birds quite different ; the crown being 

 streaked like the back, the breast and sides 

 Fig. 238 —Chipping Sp<irro\A, icdnccd (Slic p thickly Streaked with dusky, the bill pale brown, 

 parddel. Nichols sc.) ^^^ ^he head lacking definite black. In this 



stage, which, however, is of brief duration, it resembles some other species, but may be known 

 by a certain ashiness the others lack, and from the smaU sparrows that are streaked below 

 when adult, by its generic characters. North America, extremely abundant, and the most 

 familiar species about houses, in gardens, and elsewhere, nesting in shrubbery ; nest of fine 

 dried grass, lined with hair; eggs 4-5, bluish, speckled sparsely and chiefly about the larger 

 end with blackish-brown. Math purplish shell-markings; size about 0.70 X 0.55. 



270. S. d. arizo'nae. (Lat. of Arizona.) Arizona Chipping Sparrow^. Like an immature S. 

 domestica. Paler than this species, the ashiness in great measure brown ; crown grayish-brown 

 streaked with dusky like the back, and showing evident traces of rich chestnut, but never 

 becoming wholly chestnut ; black frontlet lacking or obscure, and no definite ashy superciliary 

 line, the sides of the crown merely lighter brown ; bill brown above, pale below. Arizona, and 

 other portions of the Southern Rocky Mt. region. A curious form, as it were an arrested stage 

 of domestica. Some specimens, with the least chestnut on the head, look remarkably like 

 hreiceri, but this last is evidently smaller, wdthout chestnut on the head, and otherwise difl'erent. 



271. S. agres'tis. (Lat. r/Y/resi^s, pertaining to fields; a^yer, a field.) Field Sparrow. Bill pale 

 reddish ; feet very pale ; crown dull cliestnut ; auriculars and postocular stripe the same ; no 

 decided black or whitish about head. Below, white, unmarked, but much washed with pale 

 brown on breast and sides ; sides of head and neck with some vague brown markings; all tlie 



