FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



309 



-Fox Sparrow. 



(Natural size.) 



Cambridge, abundant T. V., 



usual call-note is a sharp cheep, not unlike that of the White-throated 

 Sparrow, and quite different from the rather nasal chna of the Song 

 Sparrow. Their song is a simple, sweet, but somewhat monotonous 

 tweet-tweet-iweet, repeated many times, all on one note, and sometimes 

 running into a trill. 



~h 585. Passerella iliaca (i/em). Fox Sparrow. yi(i.— Upper parts 

 rufous-brown, the feathers margined by cinnamon-brown ; upper tail-coverts 

 and tail bright rufous ; wings mar- 

 gined with rufous ; under parts heavi- 

 ly streaked and spotted with rufous- 

 brown and blackish ; middle of the 

 belly white ; lower mandible yellow- 

 ish. L., 7-2G; W., 3-39; T., 2-85; B., 

 •50. 



Range. — Breeds from the Magda- 

 len Islands and Manitoba to Alaska ; 

 winters from Virginia southward. 



Washington, very abundant T. V., 

 Feb. to Apl. 5 ; Oct. 25 to Nov. ; a few Fig. 87.- 

 winter. Sing Sing, tolerably common 

 T. v., Mch. 4 to Apl. 20; Oct. 14 to Nov. 28. 

 Mch. 15 to Apl. 20 ; Oct. 20 to Nov. 15. 



Ned.^ of coarse grasses, lined with finer grasses, hair, moss, and feathers, on 

 the ground, and in low trees and bushes. Eggs., four to five, pale bluish, evenly 

 speckled or heavily blotched with umber or vinaceous-brown, -80 x -63 (see 

 Bendire, Auk, vi,-1880, p. 108). 



In tlie early spring the Fox Sparrow is seen mostly about damp 

 thickets and roadside shrubbery ; later it takes more to woodsides, 

 foraging on leaf-strewn slopes where there is little or no undergrowth, 

 often associated with small parties of Juncos. On its return in the 

 autumn it again becomes a common denizen of hedgerows and thickets, 

 and also invades the weedy grainfields, rarely, however, straying far 

 from some thickety cover. Sometimes large numbers congregate 

 among withered growths of tall weeds, whence they emerge with a 

 loud whirring of wings as their retreat is invaded, and hie away in 

 tawny clouds, flock after flock. It is a great scratcher among dead 

 leaves, and can make the wood rubbish fly in a way which, in propor- 

 tion to its size, a barnyard fowl could scarcely excel. 



The usual note of the Fox Sparrow is a feeble tseep. A note of 

 excitement is louder and sharper in tone. Its song is not surpassed 

 by that of any of our Sparrows. It is a reA^elation to hear it at sun- 

 down on some vernally softened evening of early springtime; little 

 swarms of gnats hover in the balmy air; from the twilight meadows 

 comes the welcome, half-doubtful piping of the first hylas— no other 



