FOX SPARROW AND GROUND-FINCH. 



129 



blotched and spotted -with purplish-brown, chiefly at 

 Ihe large end : their size 0.62 by 0.82 inch. The 

 ground colour is paler and spots darker than those of 

 '/,. gambelii, and the whole colouring much darker than 

 rthose of M. fallax. This was probably an old nest 

 used for a second brood. 



" I found another similar nest, also with four eggs, 

 in a thicket, six feet up, as late as July 10th, doubtless 

 ;a second brood." 



Russ says that this species is not quite so rare in 

 the trade as its allies and at times several specimens or 

 pairs are imported by all the principal dealers who in- 

 troduce North American birds into the market. He re- 

 commends anyone who wishes to get satisfaction from 

 this "Sparrow" to keep it by itself in a small cage, 

 where he can hear it industriously singing its un- 

 doubtedly pleasing song. It is quiite possible that 

 specimens of this bird may yet be imported from 

 Mexico : as a cage-bird well-known on the Continent I 

 could not well omit it. 



Fox SPARROW (Passerella iliaca). 



Above variable ; either olive-grey with the crown 

 more or less tinged with chestnut, the back and 

 scapulars broadly streaked with the same, and the lower 

 Tump and upper tail-coverts reddish chestnut ; or nearly 

 uniform reddish chestnut ; wings dusky brown ; wing- 

 covert chestnut, slightly paler at tips ; inner webs of 

 flights and tail-feathers paler than the outer webs, those 

 of secondaries slightly reddish ; inner webs of tail- 

 feathers dusky brown ; sides of head chestnut above 

 ear-coverts and sides of neck varied with greyish-olive ; 

 below white, the sides of throat, chest and flanks 

 "broadly streaked with reddish chestnut ; beak dark 

 forown, black at tip, yellow at base of lower mandible ; 

 feet flesh-coloured ; irides deep brown. Female not 

 <juite so strongly marked, especially on the head ; the 

 markings below darker, blackish on breast and flanks. 

 Hab., Eastern N. America, west to the plains and 

 Alaska (valley of the Yukon to the Pacific), from the 

 Arctic coast south to the Gulf States. Breeds north 

 of ithe United States , winters chiefly south of the Poto- 

 mac and Ohio rivers (A. 0. U. Check-List). 



In the " Ornithologist and Oologist," Vol. IX., p. 22, 

 Mr. Averill writes: : "The Fox Sparrow (Passerella 

 iliaca} is so early a bird in spring and so late in its 

 .autumn migration that its occurrence in New England 

 in winter is nothing very strange, yet in view of the 

 fact that the latest work on New England ornithology 

 (Cones and Stearns) says that we have no information of 

 the bird in winter within our limits, it may interest 

 the readers of the "O. and 0." to know that I took a 

 specimen in Bridgeport, Conn., on the 29th of last 

 December. The week preceding had been notable for 

 low temperature and deep snow, but this day was mild 

 and pleasant, and a warm south wind induced me to 

 explore a patch of red cedar trees by the bank of a 

 salt creek. It was here I shot the bird, which on dis- 

 section proved to be a male. The gizzard contained 

 fragments of seeds which were kindly identified by 

 Prof. D. C. Eaton of Yale College as seeds of the red 

 cedar." Prof. W. W. Cooke in the following volume 

 of the same publication has some interesting notes on 

 the migrations of this species in the Mississippi Valley 

 (Vol. X., pp. 130, 131). 



Mv library affords me no information respecting the 

 mdification of this species ; but it is not very likely 

 that the bird will come into the hands of any of my 

 readers, although two specimens reached the London 

 Zoological Gardens in 1901. It might possibly be 

 brought home by Arctic explorers but it is not 

 probable. 



RED-EYED GROUND-FINCH (Pipilo erythrophthalmua). 



Above black ; upper tail-coverts with rufescent fringes 

 at the tips ; flights with broad white borders ; three 

 outer tail feathers increasingly white at the tips from 

 within outwards; chin and throat black like the rest of 

 the head ; breast and abdomen white, thighs with the 

 bases of the feathers black ; sides and flanks chestnut, 

 the sides of chest with a few dusky spots; under tail 

 coverts pale fawn colour ; under wing coverts and 

 axillaries white, with a patch of brown near outer 

 edge of wing; flights below dusky, the edge of inner 

 web ashy ; beak black ; feet pale yellowish-brown ; 

 irides bright red. Female with chocolate on upper sur- 

 face of body in place of black, two central tail feathers 

 also chooolaite ; the four outer tail feathers white tipped, 

 instead of three ; wings brown, instead of black, the 

 primaries white at base of outer web, and the outer 

 ones with a small white marking towards the tip; inner 

 secondaries fringed with reddish, also with a broad 

 white patch on outer web; chestnut on sides of body 

 below paler than in the male. Hab., Eastern United 

 States and Southern Canada westwards to the plains. 



Said to be abundant in Eastern Pennsylvania in the 

 spring, arriving in April in flocks, which soon separate 

 into single pairs; it affects thick scrub, grass-covered 

 plains, and moist copses, and one see it also in a few 

 remote localities, S'uch as in bushes in frequented roads, 

 and here it seems by no means timid. Few of its rela- 

 tives remain so constantly on the ground as the " Ground 

 Robin " (whence the name) ; it only pel-Che's occasionally 

 upon a low bush, and never upon high itirees. Like all 

 its near relatives it indulges in an. extraordinary fowl- 

 like scratching. If in calm weather one hears the dry 

 dust in the wood scattering, this is caused by its move- 

 ments while industriously seeking food under the black- 

 berry creepers and hollies by the hour together. Its 

 flight is low, rustling and undulating. On the earth it 

 moves very actively, running and hopping. The mono- 

 tonous call-note sounds loudly ko-reet ; when alarmed it 

 utters the sharp shrill cry che-ivink thrice repeated. 

 Its ong may be rendered in the following syllables : 

 firhit-f witee-tK-W. Its food consists of seeds, berries, 

 and various insects. Towards the middle of May pairing 

 commences, and nesting in the last third of the month. 

 The nest is placed on the ground at the margins of 

 thickets, among the large quantities 1 of leaves which 

 cover the latter and in a bush. It is industriously built 

 in a few days by both members of the pair; consists 

 externally of leaves, stalks and thin twigs ; internally of 

 fibres and bast, and is lined with fine rootlets and 

 larch needles. The eggs, generally four, are round 

 ovals, the ground colour dingy whitish, marked with 

 pale-brown dots and spots, chiefly on the broader end. 

 Incubation laste thirteen days ; after about fourteen days 

 tl;e young desert the nest, and then about ten days later 

 they are able to look after themselves; nevertheless 

 they remain together with their parents in families until 

 their departure in the middle of October. Every year 

 they produce only one brood. 



I have translated the above from Russ's " Fremdland- 

 ischen Stubenvogel, Vol. I., pp. 479, 480; he quotes 

 from Gentry. Russ says : " From time to time this 

 largest and most stately of all Bunting-Sparrows* 

 appears in the market, and on account of its distinctive 

 size and colouring and its pleasing aippearance it always 

 finds ready purchasers. It is a favourite ini bird rooms, 

 and is, moreover, not rare in zoological gardens." He 



* Why not " Song-Sparrows " ? I take it that all the Sparrow- 

 like Buntings having the Whyclah-like. habit of scratching after 

 the manner of fowls must be nearly related. 



