NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 309 



and a telegraph wire is a favorite perch while singing. The nest is 

 placed in bushes or upon the ground in a tussock or at the root of a 

 bush in a thicket, frequently in briers along roadsides or upon the 

 ground in pastures, but the birds nearly always (in Ohio at least) 

 during the breeding season, confine themselves to the outskirts of 

 woods with thick undergrowth. The nest is composed of grasses on a 

 foundation of leaves ; the lining is of hair. The eggs are commonly 

 four, sometimes three or five. The predominating ground color of the 

 eggs is buflfy-white, or clay, while others have a greenish-white ground ; 

 the markings are in the form of specks and spots of various shades of 

 brown, which are sometimes so dense at the larger end as to almost 

 wholly obscure the ground color. The eggs rarely measure less than 

 .61 or more than .73 in length, and in breadth .49 or more than .55 ; 

 the average is .68X.52. Two or three broods are reared in a season, 

 the nesting time being in May, June and July. 



* * Spizella pusilla arenacea Chads, 



'Western Field Sparrow. 



Hab. Great Plains, from Southern Texas north to Wyoming Territory and Nebraska. 



A new sub-species inhabiting the Great Plains of Western United 

 States. Nesting and eggs indistinguishable from .S. pusilla. 



565. Spizella atrigularis (Cab) [215.] 



Black-diinued Sparro^v. 



Hab. Mexico and southern border of the United States from the Lower Rio Grande Valley to 

 Southern California; Lowei California. 



The Black-chinned Sparrow is a rather common species in all 

 suitable places from the southern border of the United States south- 

 ward. It inhabits the border of thickets, grassy fields and low shrub- 

 bery. These places are its favorite nesting sites. A set of three eggs 

 in Mr. Norris' cabinet, was taken June 3, 1886, near San Gorgonia Pass, 

 California. The nest was placed in a low bush. The eggs are plain, 

 light greenish-blue, about the color of the eggs of the Bluebird. They 

 measure: .68X.52, .69X.53, .69X.54. 



567. Junco hyemalis (Linn.) [217.] 



Slate-colored Junco. 



Hab. North America at large, breeding from the higher portions of the Alleghanies, Northern 

 New York, and Northern New England to Alaska (except the Pacific coast district, or south and east 

 of the peninsula) south in winter to the Gulf States. 



Better known as the Black Snowbird, and in most of the United 

 States is oftener seen during the winter months. Breeds in the 

 mountains of Northern Pennsylvania, New York, and New England ; 

 is resident throughout the year in Northeastern Ohio, and in 

 Michigan. Mr. Mcllwraith gives it as a fairly common resident of 

 Ontario where, in the southern portion, it is known as the " White 



