102 
FIELD SPARROW. 
563. NSpizella pusilla. 5% inches. 
Bill pinkish-brown; crown and ear covert brown with 
no black markings; back reddish brown and breast and 
sides washed with brown. 
You will find these birds in dry pastures, stubble 
fields and side hills. The hotter and dryer a place is, 
the better they seem to like it. They are often the 
only birds that will be found nesting on tracts of land 
recently burned over, upon which the sun beats down 
with stifling heat. 
Song.—A series of shrill piping whistles on an as- 
cending scale and terminating in a little trill, ‘“swee- 
see-see-se-e-e.” 
Nest.—A frail structure of grasses and weeds, lined 
with finer grasses; placed either on the ground or in 
bushes, briars or weed patches; four or five whitish 
eggs marked with reddish brown (.68 x .50). 
Range.—Breeds from the Gulf States north to south- 
ern Canada; winters in southern United States. 
Sub-species.—-563a. Western Field Sparrow (arena- 
cea), a paler race found on the Great Plains. 
