OF NEW ENGLAND. 205 
numbers at their feeding-grounds; but gradually many leave 
us to pass the summer in a more northern country, and others 
begin to build their nests here. During the breeding-season 
they occupy the neighborhood of these nests, the various situ- 
ations of which have already been mentioned. In many locali- 
ties, other than those in which I have made my own observa- 
tions, such as the fields and pasture-lands of the interior, and 
those of New Hampshire or Maine, they perhaps pass the 
spring as they do the summer, in those fields and their imme- 
diate surroundings. In such places they are probably in the 
former season less common and less gregarious than in the 
country previously described. As they raise two or three 
broods every year, it is not until August (or a little earlier) 
that they are freed from their household cares. Like several 
other birds, they divide the labors of rearing their young, and 
the males, while their mates rear one brood, often build the 
nest for another, and are busied until summer is well advanced. 
Later in the year they collect at their feeding-grounds, but not 
so abundantly as in the spring, since the fall-migrations of this 
species extend through a greater length of time than the oth- 
ers. During the former the Song Sparrows are most common 
throughout a part of September and October, and associate 
with various other finches, rather preferring, at this season, dry 
grounds to the swamps. It is impossible, however, to exactly 
define the nature of the places in which they may then be 
usually found. After the middle of October, they appear and 
disappear until only those are left who pass the winter with 
us. At all times of the year, except during the mating-season, 
they are rather shy, and, when startled, almost invariably dive 
into some near brush-heap or thicket, where they are well 
concealed. They commonly prefer the neighborhood of the 
ground, running quite nimbly on it, but much more often perch 
in trees, even at a considerable height, than is commonly sup- 
posed. They have a gently undulating flight, flying low and 
never very far. 
In summer they are to be found throughout a greater part 
of northern North America, even so far to the southward as 
