WHITEs=THROATED SPARROW. 
Jong line of ancestors, and that he will in turn hand 
down what he has learned to the generations of the 
future! Why, therefore, should a finale have any place 
in the bird’s song? 
The time for a study of the White-crown is short ; he 
arrives from the south about the first week in May, and . 
leaves for the north about two weeks later. He will not 
stop short of Labrador when he settles down for the 
summer, and we would have to go there to hear his 
song at its best. 
White-throated This handsomely attired Sparrow is one 
Sparrow —— of _the most distinguished members of 
tenet the family. His familiar song is one of the 
Zonotrichia : 
albicollis best demonstrations of mannerism in the 
L.6.7oinches music of a given species which it is possi- 
April25tb, or ble to find. When once the song is heard 
ail the year Sie 
it is never forgotten, and anyone who can 
whistle can imitate it. The bird is clad in fine feathers 
although these are not of a brilliant type; his style is 
very similar to that of the White-crown, but his color- 
ing is much browner. Head striped black and white, 
with the white in the centre of the crown and over each 
eye narrower than the black ; in front of the eye and at 
the bend of the wing there is a patch of lemon yellow ,; 
back brown, streaked with black and buff ; region ove 
the tail‘grayer ; tail gray-brown; wing coverts tipped 
with white which forms two distinct wing-bars on each 
wing; throat with a large, square, white patch ; breast 
brownish gray fading to light white-gray on the under 
parts. Female similarlymarked. Nest of grasses, root- 
lets, and plant fibre, lined with finer material of the same 
order: . Egg bluish white, evenly and heavily speckled 
with various browns. This Sparrow has a broad range 
throughout eastern North America as far north as the 
fur countries, and breeds from northern Michigan to 
Maine (probably including northern Massachusetts) ; it 
winters from the latter State to Florida. The bird feeds 
upon seeds, berries, and a variety of insects. 
The song of the Peabody-bird is remarkable for Its 
~hythm, and its pure, clear-whistled tones. It would be 
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