270 FRINGILLID^E I FINCHES. 



cies already treated to which the name of "Field" 

 or "Ground" Sparrow is very loosely applied by those 

 who do not recognize the nice distinctions which sub- 

 sist among these closely related birds. It should be 

 easily identified by the above description, though it 

 is one of the common species whose distinctive traits 

 and habits are not so well known as they might easily 

 be. The nest is somewhat like that of the Chip-bird 

 in construction, but not so neat, nor so conspicuously 

 composed of horse hair ; straws, rootlets, and other 

 vegetable fibre entering more largely into its con- 

 struction. It is also usually placed on the ground, at 

 the foot of a small bush, or but a little way up in 

 some low shrub. The eggs are entirely different in 

 color from the Chippy's, though of the same size and 

 shape, being white (grayish-white or greenish-white) 

 speckled all over with reddish-brown of varying shades, 

 and generally quite light. The general resemblance 

 is with the eggs of the Yellow-winged Sparrow, rather 

 than with those of other species of Spizclla. There 

 are two broods, the first eggs being laid late in May. 

 It is a common New England bird, in field, pas- 

 ture, and scrub land, playing in Southern portions 

 much the same role that the Chippy sustains ; but is 

 decidedly more southerly in its general range. It is 

 naturally limited northward by the Alleghanian Fauna, 

 and is not common beyond such boundary, though ex- 

 tending also into the Canadian.* It can in fact hardly 



* On this subject compare Brewer, Pr. Bost. Soc., xvii, 1875, 

 p. 442, where it is implied that the species is a summer resident 

 of all New England, with Purdie, Bull. Nutt. Club, i, 1876, p. 73, 

 and ii, 1877, p. 15, where it is shown that the bird seldom reaches 

 Northern New England. 



