106 FIELD SPARROW. 



from the lower mandible ; feathers of the crown narrow, rather long, 

 and generally erected, but not so as to form a crest ; nostrils and base 

 of the bill covered with reflected brownish hairs ; eye dark hazel ; 

 wings and tail dark blackish brown, edged with olive ; first and second 

 row of coverts tipped with pale yellow ; chin white ; breast pale cream, 

 marked with pointed spots of deep olive brown ; belly and vent white ; 

 legs brown. This bird, with several others marked nearly in the same 

 manner, was shot, April twenty-fifth, while engaged in eating the buds 

 from the beech tree. 



Species III. FRINGILLA PUSILLA. 



FIELD SPARROW. 



[Plate XVI. Fig. 2.] 

 Passer ayrestis, Bartram, p. 291. 



This is the smallest of all our Sparrows, and in Pennsylvania is 

 generally migratory. It arrives early in April, frequents dry fields 

 covered with long grags, builds a small nest on the ground, generally at 

 the foot of a briar, lines it with horse-hair ; lays six eggs so thickly 

 sprinkled with ferruginous as to appear altogether of that tint ; and 

 raises two, and often three, broods in a season. It is more frequently 

 found in the middle of fields and orchards than any of the other species, 

 which usually lurk along hedge rows. It has no song ; but a kind of 

 chirrupping not much different from the chirpings of a cricket. Towards 

 fall they assemble in loose flocks in orchards and corn fields, in search 

 of the seeds of various rank weeds ; and are then very numerous. As 

 the weather becomes severe, with deep snow, they disappear. In the 

 lower parts of North and South Carolina I found this species in multi- 

 tudes in the months of January and February. When disturbed they 

 take to the bushes, clustering so close together that a dozen may easily 

 be shot at a time. I continued to see them equally numerous through 

 the whole lower parts of Georgia ; from whence, according to Mr. Abbot, 

 they all disappear early in the spring. 



None of our birds have been more imperfectly described than that 

 family of the Finch tribe usually called Sparrows. They have been 

 considered as too insignificant for particular notice, yet they possess 

 distinct characters, and some of them peculiarities, well worthy of notice. 

 They are innocent in their habits, subsisting chiefly on the small seeds 

 of wild plants, and seldom injuring the property of the farmer. In the 

 dreary season of winter some of them enliven the prospect by hopping 



