WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. 315 



they pass the summer, they raise two broods in the season. 

 They are commonly caught in trap-cages, to which ihey are 

 sometimes allured by a stuffed bird, which they descend to 

 attack ; and they have been known to survive in domestica- 

 tion for upwards of ten years. 



This species is common in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, 

 and has been taken north to southern Illinois and North Carolina. 



Note. — The Grassquit {Euetheia bkolof) and the Melo- 

 dious Grassquit {EuetJicia canora) — both West India birds — 

 have been taken in southern Florida, though they are merely 

 accidental wanderers there. 



WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. 



ZONOTRICHIA LEUCOPHRYS. 



Char. Upper parts brown, streaked with brownish black, dull bay, 

 and pale ash ; crown white, bordered by bands of black ; lines of black 

 and white from eyes to hind neck ; wings with two white bars ; below, dark 

 ash, whitening on throat and belly ; flanks shaded with brown. Length 

 about 7 inches. 



Nest. In an open woodland, on the ground or in a low bush, — 

 usually concealed in grass at the foot of a bush ; firmly made of dried 

 grass lined with fine grass, — sometimes with deer's hair or feathers, or 

 roots. 



Eggs. 4-6 ; greenish white or bluish white thickly spotted with red- 

 dish brown; 0.90 X 0.65. 



This rare and handsome species is very little known in any 

 part of the United States, a few stragglers only being seen 

 about the beginning of winter, and again in May or earlier, on 

 their way back to their Northern breeding-places, in the fur 

 countries and round Hudson's Bay, which they visit from the 

 South in May, and construct their nests in June in the vicinity 

 of Albany Fort and Severn River. These are fixed on the 

 ground, or near it, in the shelter of the willow-trees which 

 they glean, probably with many other birds, for the insects 

 which frequent them. 



