320 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



bush, sometimes in a bush : it is lined with fine grass and 

 horsehairs. The eggs are usually four in number : they are 

 of a grayish-white color, with thinly scattered spots and 

 blotches of reddish-brown and lavender ; and their dimen- 

 sions vary from .72 by .52 to .70 by .50 inch. Two broods 

 are reared in the season. 



Early in September, these birds collect in loose flocks, 

 when they have all the. habits and notes of the Tree Spar- 

 row. In October, they all leave New England for the 

 South. 



L 



SPIZELLA SOCIALIS. Bonaparte. 

 The Chipping Sparrow; Hair-bird. 



?ringitta socialis, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 127; Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (18841 

 21; V. 517. 



Spinites socialis, Cabanis. Mus. Hein. (1851), 133. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Rump, back of neck, and sides of neck and head, ashy; interscapular region with 

 black streaks, margined with pale-rufous; crown continuous and uniform chestnut; 

 forehead black, separated in the middle by white; a white streak over the eye, and 

 a black one from the base of the bill through and behind the eye; under parts un- 

 spotted whitish, tinged with ashy, especially across the upper breast ; tail feathers 

 and primaries edged with paler, not white ; two narrow white bands across the wing 

 coverts ; bill black. 



Length, five and seventy-five one-hundredths inches ; wing, nearly three inches. 



Hob. North America, from Atlantic to Pacific. 



This very common and well-known little species makes its 

 appearance in Massachusetts sometimes as early as the 25th 

 of March, 1 usually about the 5th of April, and spreads 

 throughout New England. The habits are so well known 

 that any description here is superfluous. 



About the fifteenth of May, the nest is built. It is 

 placed in an apple-tree in the orchard, or in a lilac-bush 

 under the windows of a dwelling-house ; and I found nests 

 in low juniper bushes in the deep woods in Maine. It is 



1 I am indebted for the time of the arrival of this and of many other birds to 

 Mr. H. A. Purdie, of Boston, who has kindly furnished me with full and copious 

 notes and memoranda on the arrival of species, which are of value, having been con- 

 ducted for several years. 



