BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 323 



strongly- characterized notes, which, as Thoreau says, "are as 

 distinct to the ear as the passage of a spark of fire shot into 

 the darkness of the forest would be to the eye." "Like most 

 sparrows they build on the ground, amongst bushes. The 

 nest is formed neatly of dried grass, weeds and mosses, and 

 lined with finer grasses and fibrous roots. The eggs are gray 

 ish- white, spotted and splashed with brown and pale markings, 

 and five in number. 



It arrives in spring migration from the 25th of April to the 

 1st of May, and engages in nest-building from the 15th to the 

 20th of that month. About the 20th of September they begin 

 to leave for the South in a very quiet, sparrow-like way, appar- 

 ently in families or little colonies. Its food from the moment 

 of its arrival until its departure makes it a friend to the farmer 

 and gardener. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Two black stripes on the crown separated by a median one 

 of white; a broad superciliary stripe from the base of the man- 

 dible to the occiput, yellow as far as the middle of the eye, and 

 white behind this. A broad black streak on the side of the 

 head from behind the eye; chin white, abruptly defined against 

 the dark ash of the sides of the head and upper part of the 

 breast, fading into white on the belly, and margined by a nar- 

 row black maxillary line; edge of wing and axillaries yellow; 

 back and edges of secondaries rufous-brown, the former streaked 

 with dark brown; two narrow white bands across the wing 

 coverts. 



Length, 7; wing, 3.10; tail, 3.20. 



Habitat, eastern North America, west to the plains. 



Note. It has never been my fortune to hear the song of the 

 White-throated Sparrow in the night, after the manner of the 

 nightingale, but Samuels in his "Birds of New England," page 

 61, says after graphically describing a bird-chorus made up of 

 the notes of the Virginian owls, loons, etc., etc.: "After this 

 had died away and all was still, there came from a bush near 

 our tent, the almost heavenly song of the White-throated Spar- 

 row, the 'Nightingale of the North." One cannot imagine the 

 effect produced by the contrast; he must be on the spot in the 

 dark night, and through the sighings of the winds amid the 

 grand old trees, hear the loons, and then the silence broken by 

 the beautiful song of the nightingale." 



SPIZELLA MONTICOLA (Gmelin). (559.) 



TREE SPARROW. 



A very abundant species which seldom, if ever, leaves the 



state during the coldest winters, and breeds extensively about 



the lakes and streams bordered with alders, willows and low 



