824 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



and lined with finer of the same : these are adjusted into a 

 loose fabric, and placed in or beneath a tussock of grass in 

 a swamp. I have known of instances of its being found 

 in a low barberry-bush ; but such cases are extremely rare, 

 and form exceptions to the rule. The eggs are four or five 

 in number : their color is a grayish-white, with sometimes a 

 bluish tint, and marked with thinly scattered spots of brown 

 over the entire surface, except a circle around the greater 

 end, where they are confluent, and hide the primary color. 

 Dimensions of a number in my cabinet vary from .80 

 by .58 to .76 by .54 inch. Two broods are reared in the 

 season. 



Wilson, in describing the general habits of this species, 

 says, 



" It is one of our summer visitants, arriving in Pennsylvania 

 early in April ; frequenting low grounds and river courses ; rearing 

 two, and sometimes three, broods in a season ; and returning to the 

 South as soon as the cold weather commences. The immense 

 cypress swamps and extensive grassy flats of the Southern States, 

 that border their numerous rivers, and the rich rice plantations, 

 abounding with their favorite seeds and sustenance, appear to 

 be the general winter resort and grand annual rendezvous of this 

 and all the other species of Sparrow that remain with us during 

 summer. From the river Trent in North Carolina to that of 

 Savannah, and still farther south, I found this species very numer- 

 ous ; not flying in flocks, but skulking among the canes, reeds, and 

 grass, seeming shy and timorous, and more attached to the water 

 than any other of their tribe. In the month of April, numbers 

 pass through Pennsylvania to the northward ; which I conjecture 

 from the circumstance of finding them at that season in particular 

 parts of the woods, where, during the rest of the year, they are 

 not to be seen. The few that remain frequent the swamps and 

 reedy borders of our creeks and rivers. They form their nest in 

 the ground, sometimes in a tussock of rank grass surrounded by 

 water, and lay four eggs, of a dirty-white, spotted with rufous. So 

 late as the 15th of August, I have seen them feeding their young 

 that were scarcely able to fly. Their principal food is grass seeds, 



