284 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



169. Melospiza cinerea melodia (Wils.). 

 Song Sparrow. Ground Sparrow. 



Exceedingly abundant transient vi.si tor ; very common summer resident ; locally common 

 winter resident. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



March 10 — November i. (Winter.) 



NESTING DATES. 



April 30 — May 15. 



At its seasons of migration the Song Sparrow is decidedly the most numer- 

 ously represented member of its family. For days in succession, late in March 

 and early in April, it literally floods the entire Cambridge Region. Like the 

 Junco and Tree Sparrow it is found abundantly in or near weedy fields ; 

 unlike them it never moves from place to place in large flocks, although the birds 

 often congregate very numerously where food is plenty. At times they are so 

 generally and evenly distributed over the open country that nearly every cluster 

 of bushes and patch of long grass in our fields and meadows harbors one or more 

 birds. They even occur sparingly in dry, second-growth woods, and some- 

 times rather commonly in thickets of young pines or cedars on high land. Fully 

 nine tenths of all the Song Sparrows seen at this season go further north to pass 

 the summer, but enough remain to fully populate all the localities which are 

 suitable for breeding haunts. These at the present time include the Fresh 

 Pond Swamps and most of the farming country of Belmont, Arlington, Lexing- 

 ton and Waltham, as well as portions of Watertown. In all these towns the 

 birds continue to nest sparingly in evergreen trees or hedges near houses 

 and in long grass or shrubbery along old walls ; rather commonly in pastures 

 sprinkled with cedars and barberry bushes ; most numerously of all in thickets 

 growing about the edges of meadows and on the banks of brooks. 



Like so many of our smaller native birds the Song Sparrow has learned 

 to shun localities where House Sparrows have become inordinately numerous. 

 Thirty or forty years ago it was regularly common in summer in every part of 

 Cambridge, nesting not only near Harvard Square and the College Grounds, but 

 very generally throughout Cambridgeport, where, in many places, the houses 

 stood almost as closely together then as they do today. We seldom see it now 



