202 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



time on the ground, often alight on the ridge-poles of barns, 

 and on fences, or on telegraph-wires, generally those by the 

 roadside, where fields are near at hand. They often venture 

 to the roads, where they pick up food, and sometimes dust 

 themselves, generally being undisturbed by a near approach. 

 When approached in the fields, they often run ahead, if a per- 

 son walks behind, occasionally " squatting," so to speak, as if 

 to rest. The whole or partial whiteness of their outer tail- 

 feathers, noticeable as the birds fly, renders the Bay-winged 

 Buntings easily recognizable. These finches build their nests 

 in fields and pasture-lands, usually produce their first set of 

 eggs in the early part of Ma}^, and raise two or even three 

 broods in the course of one summer, so that their duties to 

 their } r oung are often not completed until August. In the lat- 

 ter part of that month, and later in the season, they are chiefly 

 gregarious, and, perhaps associated with Song or Savannah 

 Sparrows, frequent in large flocks the roadsides, and their 

 other feeding-grounds. Their flights are less confined than 

 those of the Savannah Finches, though they are not much on 

 the wing. They are, however, bolder than those birds, though 

 like them they avoid to a certain extent the neighborhood of 

 houses. 



(d). The song of the Bay-winged Buntings is quite loud 

 and clear, and resembles that of the Song Sparrow, but is en- 

 tirely distinct, and rather sweeter though less lively. It often 

 may be heard in the heat of a summer-noon, but is more often 

 repeated towards dusk, whence the name of "Vesper Sparrow." 

 It is my impression that I have heard it once or twice at night, 

 and I have certainly heard it in October. Their ordinary note, 

 a chip, is in no way characteristic. 



XIII. MELOSPIZA 



(A) MELODIA. Song Sparrow. 



(A resident in Massachusetts throughout the year. In sum- 

 mer very abundant in all the New England States.) 



(a). 5| 6^- inches long. (Head-markings, never prominent, 

 are as follows : crown bay, fiuety streaked with black ; me- 



