SPARROWS 423 



Nest building begins about May tenth to fifteenth and a 

 nest is completed in five to twelve days according to circum- 

 stances, and the same spot used the previous year or some place 

 near by is selected usually. The male occasionally helps 

 (rarely however in most instances) build the nest and does a 

 small proportion of the work of incubation. He faithfully 

 helps to feed the young however. The eggs hatch in from ten 

 to twelve days and the young leave in twelve days more. A 

 second brood is always reared, the eggs for this being laid in 

 early July. 



563. Spizella piisilla (Wih.^. Field Sparrow. 



Plumage of adults: head rufous with a very indistinct grayish median 

 stripe ; back streaked with black and edged with pale cinnamon and brown- 

 ish ashy; rump brownish ashy; middle and greater wing coverts white 

 tipped ; gray line over eye ; below whitish, tinged with grayish and huffy on 

 breast and sides. Immature plumage : similar, streaked below with dusky 

 on throat and sides ; crown edged with grayish. Wing 2.60 ; culmen 0.37 ; 

 tail 2.60. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern United States and southern Canada ; breeding from 

 Illinois and South Carolina to Maine, Quebec and Manitoba. 



County Records. — Androscoggin ; fairly common summer resident, (Call). 

 Cumberland ; breeding at Cape Elizabeth and found in Westbrook and Gor- 

 ham, (Norton, J. M. 0. S. 1904, p. 54) ; not common, (Mead) ; uncommon sum- 

 mer resident, (Brown, C. B. P. p. 14). Franklin; rare summer resident, 

 (Swain); common summer resident, (Sweet). Kennebec; summer resident, 

 (Larrabee). Knox; summer, (Norton). Oxford; breeds, (Nash). Penobscot; 

 local summer resident, found in three places near Bangor, (Knight). Piscat- 

 aquis; taken and seen near Dover, (Ritchie). Sagadahoc; rare, (Spratt). 

 Somerset; seen once near Pittsfield, (Knight). Waldo; one seen at Isles- 

 boro' in 1894, (Howe, J. M. 0. S. 1900, p. 30). York; not common summer 

 resident, (Adams) ; common at East Parsonsfield in 1901, observed at Shap- 

 leigh, (Norton, 1. c). 



Migration data seems lacking but Mr. Brown records it as 



earliest appearing on April seventeenth, while near Bangor I 



have not noticed it until May tenth. In fall they remain 



at least until September, probably much later. The species is 



very local in distribution and found only in sections where 



distinct Alleghanian faunal and floral characters prevail, even 



