SPIZELLA AGRESTIS : FIELD SPARROW. 269 



ceaseless " struggle for existence " that is the order 

 of Nature for all creatures. During the pairing and 

 nesting periods they are pretty equally dispersed in 

 their usual haunts, showing no gregarious disposition ; 

 but in the fall, preceding or during the migration, 

 flocks of considerable size make up by the roadside 

 and in the pasture-land. They have at times a song 

 quite different from the sharp, monotonous trill so 

 characteristic of the spring-time, and of much more 

 musical quality ; and they are among the several birds 

 of our country which occasionally wake up in the mid- 

 dle of the night, to twitter a tremulous expression of 

 their happiness, and then sink quietly to sleep again. 



FIELD SPARROW. 

 SPIZELLA AGRESTIS (Bartr.) Coues. 



Chars. With nearly the size and shape of S. socialis, but the color- 

 ation more that of S. monticola. Bill pale reddish ; feet very 

 pale ; crown dull chestnut, without black on the forehead ; sides 

 of the head and neck with vague brown markings : those parts 

 which in socialis are ashy, here pale brownish. Middle of back 

 bright bay, with some black streaking and pale flaxen edging 

 of the feathers ; inner secondaries colored to correspond ; two 

 decided whitish wing-bars, formed by the tips of the median 

 and greater coverts. Under parts white, without markings, but 

 much tinged with pale brown, or clay-color. Tail rather long, 

 narrow, and emarginate, proportionally longer than in S. socialis, 

 rather exceeding, instead of being a little shorter than, the wing. 

 Sexes alike : young similar, but for a short time streaked below, 

 as in S. socialis. 



This small and rather plainly colored Sparrow is 

 to be carefully distinguished, among the several spe- 



