116 SWAMP SPARROW. 



head ; this is bordered on each side with a stripe of black ; below this 

 again is another of white passing over each eye, and deepening into 

 orange yellow between that and the nostril ; this is again bordered by a 

 stripe of black proceeding from the hind part of the eye ; breast ash ; 

 chin, belly, and vent white ; tail somewhat wedged ; legs flesh colored ; 

 bill a bluish horn color ; eye hazel. In the female the white stripe on the 

 crown is a light drab ; the breast not so dark ; the chin less pure ; and 

 the line of yellow before the eye scarce half as long as in the male. 

 All the parts that are white in the male are in the female of a light 

 drab color. 



Species X. FRINGILLA PALUSTRIS. 



SWAMP SPARROW. 



[Plate XXII. Fig. 1.] 



Passer palusiris, Bartram, p. 291. 



The history of this obscure and humble species is short and un- 

 interesting. Unknown or overlooked by the naturalists of Europe, it 

 is now for the first time introduced to the notice of the world. It is 

 one of our summer visitants, arriving in Pennsylvania early in April, 

 frequenting low grounds, and river courses ; rearing two, and sometimes 

 three broods in a season ; and returning to the south as the cold weather 

 commences. The immense cypress swamps and extensive grassy flats 

 of the Southern States, that border their numerous rivers, and the rich 

 rice plantations abounding with their favorite seeds and sustenance, 

 appear to be the general winter resort, and grand annual rendezvous, 

 of this and all other species of Sparrow that remain with us during 

 summer. From the river Trent, in North Carolina, to that of Savan- 

 nah, and still farther south, I found this species very numerous ; not 

 flying in flocks, but skulking among the canes, reeds, and grass, seem- 

 ing shy and timorous, and more attached to the water than any other 

 of their tribe. In the month of April numbers pass through Pennsyl- 

 vania to the northward, which I conjecture from the circumstance of 

 finding them at that season in particular parts of the woods, where 

 during the rest of the year they are not to be seen. The few that 

 remain frequent the swamps, and reedy borders of our creeks and 

 rivers. They form their nest in the ground, sometimes in a tussock of 

 rank grass, surrounded by water, and lay four eggs of a dirty white, 

 spotted with rufous. So late as the fifteenth of August, I have seen 

 them feeding their young that were scarcely able to fly. Their prin- 



