580 THE FOX-COLORED SPARROW. 



blotched with reddish-brown and lilac. Sometimes the 

 markings are quite heavy. Size, .85X.62-.86 X.65. 



It will thus appear that this largest of our Sparrows is 

 a most hardy species; scarcely more than the herald of 

 winter, as it returns from its boreal summer resorts, passing 

 the inclement months barely beyond the zone of continued 

 ice and snow, and seeking its northern climes again with 

 the first glow of early spring. It is one of the few song- 

 birds, for which we may look, along with the passage of 

 the Wild Geese and Ducks. It is pre-eminently a song-bird. 

 Audubon bears the most unqualified testimony to the power 

 and charm of its melodies on the bleak coasts of Labrador; 

 and Maynard is no less enthusiastic over "the magnificent 

 song of the male filling the clear, still air with melody" as 

 he listened to it in the Magdalen Islands. He says: "These 

 fine strains consist at first of three clear, rather rapid notes, 

 given with increasing emphasis, then a short pause ensues, 

 and the remainder of the lay is poured forth more delib- 

 erately, terminating with a well rounded note, giving a 

 finish to a song which, for sweetness and clearness of tone, 

 is seldom surpassed even by our best performers." The 

 loitering migrants, in the more genial days of April, give a 

 fine prelude to the summer song. How these birds will 

 cheer the Indian summer, in common with many other birds, 

 with the subdued echoes of their earlier songs, has been 

 noted by all; even in January, in the south, the little flocks, 

 disporting in secluded sunny nooks, lisp their subdued 

 melodies. 



Some 7.10 long, and 11.25 in extent, the crown is slaty, 

 streaked with rufous; upper parts generally, including 

 wings and tail, rufous, brightest on the rump; ear-coverts, 

 and more or less variable marks on the throat, rufous; tri- 

 angular spots on the upper part of the breast, light red, the 



