306 FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



• 



In Florida, where this bird is not uncommon during the winter, I 

 have found it in pine woods undergrown with turlcey oaks, and not in 

 localities frequented by P. CBstivalis. Mr. Ridgway writes that in 

 Illinois this is " emphatically a bird of open oak woods, where large 

 white and post oaks prevail, with grass land immediately adjoining, 

 or where the intervals between the trees consist of sward rather than 

 undergrowth ; but neglected fields, grown up to weeds, and in which 

 dead trees are left standing, are also its favorite haunts." 



He speaks of its song as reminding one somewhat of the plaintive 

 chant of the Field Sparrow, but as far sweeter and louder; ''the modu- 

 lation, as nearly as can be expressed in words, resembling the syllables 

 theeeeeee-ihut, lut, lut, hit, the first being a rich silvery trill, pitched in 

 a high musical key, ihe other syllables also metallic, but abrupt, and 

 lower in tone." 



581. Melospiza fasciata (Gmel.). Song Sparrow. Ad. — Crown 

 rufous-brown, with a grayish line through its center ; a grayish line over the 

 eye; a rufous-brown Tine from behind the eye to the nape ; feathers of the 

 back streaked with bhxek and margined with rufous-brown and grayish ; 

 greater wing-coverts with black spots at their tips; no white wing-bars or 

 yellow on the wing ; tail rufous grayish brown, the middle feathers darker 

 along their shafts ; outer feathers shortest; sides of the throat with black or 

 blackish streaks ; breast with wedge-shaped streaks of black and rufous- 

 brown which tend to form one largtr blotch on the center ; sides washed 

 with brownish and streaked with black and rufous-brown ; middle of the 

 belly white. L., G-30 ; V/., 2-52 ; T., 2-G2 ; B., -49. 



Range. — Eastern North America ; breeds from northern Illinois and Vir- 

 ginia north to Quebec and Manitoba; winters from southern Illinois and 

 Massachusetts to the Gulf States. 



Washington, common P. R., abundant T. V., Mch. and Oct. Sing Sing, 

 common P. K. Cambridge, very abundant S. E., Mch. 10 to Nov. 1 ; locally 

 common W. V. 



Nest., of coarse grasses, rootlets, dead leaves, strips of bark, etc., lined with 

 finer grasses and sometimes long hairs, on the ground, sometimes in bushes. 

 Eggs., four to five, white or bluish white, with numerous rufous-brown mark- 

 ings which sometimes nearly conceal the ground color, '76 x "60. 



The Song Sparrow's vast range in a dozen varying climates, its 

 readiness to adapt itself to the different conditions in each of the re- 

 gions it inhabits, its numerical abundance and steady increase while 

 some of its family are dying out, its freedom from disease and vermin, 

 and its perennial good spirits evidenced by its never-failing music — 

 uU proclaim that it is indeed one of Nature's successes. 



Its irrepressible vivacity and good spirits in spite of all circum- 

 stances are aptly illustrated by the fact that its song may be heard in 

 every month of the year and in all weathers ; also by night as well as 

 by day — for nothing is more common in the darkest nights than to 



^ 



