SPARROWS 421 



surface. Other eggs are said to be sometimes rather more 

 heavily marked about the larger end. Three to five is the 

 usual number laid. 



560. Spizellasocialis (}N\h.^. Chipping Sparrow ; Chippy ; 

 Chip Bird; Hair Bird. 



Plumage of adults : crown chestnut ; forehead black with a grayish line 

 in middle ; grayish line over eye and dark line back of eye ; neck grayish 

 behind ; back streaked with black, rufous and buffy ochraceous ; rump slate 

 gray ; secondaries and tertiaries edged with chestnut ; wings and tail dark- 

 ish or blackish ; primaries edged with ashy ; below grayish white to whitish. 

 Immature plumage : top of head streaked like back ; no black on forehead ; 

 otherwise very similar. Wing 2.74 ; culmen 0.37 ; tail 2.32. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern North America, west to Rocky Mountains, breeding 

 from the Gulf States to Newfoundland and the Great Slave Lake ; wintering 

 in Gulf States and Mexico. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; abundant summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; locally common, seemingly rare in the Woolastook Valley, 

 (Knight). Cumberland; common summer resident, (Mead). Franklin; com- 

 mon summer resident, (Swain). Hancock; summer resident, (Murch). 

 Kennebec; quite common summer resident, (Gardiner Branch). Knox; 

 summer, (Rackliff). Oxford ; common breeder, (Nash). Penobscot; locally 

 abundant summer resident, (Knight). Piscataquis; common, breeds, (Ho- 

 mer). Sagadahoc; common summer resident, (Spinney). Somerset ; com- 

 mon summer resident, (Morrell) ; rare in northern wilder sections, (Knight). 

 Waldo; common summer resident, (Knight). Washington; very abundant 

 summer resident, (Boardman). York; abundant, (Adams). 



The first spring arrivals appear about the middle of April, 



usually April tenth to seventeenth at Bangor, and the species 



remains until about October fifteenth or in southern Maine up 



to even November fifth. The species is essentially very sociable 



tame and confiding, frequenting the trees, vines and shrubbery 



of garden and orchard as well as roadside trees. Though 



occurring along streams, about lakes and ponds and along 



highways in the wilder sections of the State, the species is 



essentially a bird of inhabited regions and is rarely found in 



any numbers save in settled districts. They are sprightly 



little birds, hopping about on the lawns, walks, verandas and 



in the shrubbery of gardens, uttering an occasional " chip " or 



