328 NOTES ON THE 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Back and sides of hind neck ashy; prevailing color above, 

 pale brownish yellow, with a tinge of grayish; feathers of back 

 and crown streaked conspicuously with blackish, the latter 

 with a median ashy, and a lateral or superciliary ashy white 

 stripe; beneath, whitish tinged with brown on the breast and 

 sides, and an indistinct narrow brown streak on the edge of 

 the chin. Ear coverts, brownish-yellow, margined above and 

 below by dark brown. 



Length, 4.75; wing, 2.55. 



Habitat, interior of North America. 



SPIZELLA PUSILLA (Wilson). (563.) 

 FIELD SPARROW. 



About the 25th of April, or a little earlier, the Field Spar- 

 rows have got here as unobserved as a ' 'frown upon the brow of 

 twilight," and are then found in dry, bushy pastures, and low, 

 open woods, away from the dwellings of men. By the second 

 week in May they are engaged in constructing their nests of 

 dried grasses and fine twigs loosely arranged and placed on 

 the ground under a bush, or in it, as is the case occasionally. 

 Four eggs constitute the complement, colored grayish-white 

 with thinly scattered spots and blotches of reddish-brown and 

 lavender. During incubation the male is heard singing from a 

 perch on a low tree, or a rail of the fence. His song is a 

 plaintive, humble ditty, poured out in the early morn and eve. 

 In dark, cloudy weather he sings all the day long, as if fully 

 appreciating the need of cheering the little bird-wife in the 

 patient waitings of her maternity. 



The song has no claims to melodious variety, while it fills no 

 mean place in the grand choral of usual song. The best idea of 

 it may be expressed in a recently employed combination of the 

 following syllables adopted by Mr. Langille: ''Free-o, free-o, 

 free-o, free-o, free, free, free, free, free, free: the first four louder, 

 well prolonged and on a higher key, while the remaining notes 

 run rapidly to a lower pitch, growing softer and weaker to the 

 end, the last being barely preceptible at a short distance. The 

 song is quite constantly repeated at short intervals, and has a 

 rather melancholy, but soothing, and pleasing effect, which 

 sensitive natures readily recognize, and do not easily forget. 



' 'It is the homely, pensive poetry of the thicket, that line of 

 land where the cultivated beauty and fertility of the fields end, 

 and the solitude and gloom of the forest begin." 



