OF NEW ENGLAND. 211 



twentieth of April, but are not at that season gregarious, and 

 about the first of May become abundant, soon afterwards be- 

 ginning to build their nests. They inhabit more or less pas- 

 ture-land, but particularly affect the neighborhood of man 

 to such a degree that they were formerly abundant on Boston 

 Common, though they have lately been somewhat supplanted 

 by the English sparrows. They frequent lawns, orchards, 

 gardens, the neighborhood of houses, and public ways. They 

 often obtain on the roadsides the small seeds which constitute 

 a part of their food, and, when so doing, are rarely disturbed 

 by the approach of man. They feed also very largely in sum- 

 mer upon small caterpillars, inclusive of the dreaded canker- 

 worms, and are thus beneficial to man. Towards one another 

 they are rather pugnacious, but perhaps playfully so. Their 

 flight, never a long one, is in no way peculiar. They often 

 perch upon fences, and sometimes between two narrowly sep- 

 arated pickets, which well illustrates their littleness. They 

 rarely perch or fly at any great height from the ground, and 

 indeed are not commonly to be seen in tall trees, unless in the 

 lower branches, for instance of the pines, in which they often 

 build their nests. There is hardly a populated district of 

 Massachusetts where they are not common, but to the north- 

 ward of that State they gradually become rarer, though in sum- 

 mer found in Arctic countries. In Northern New Hampshire, 

 they are not very numerous, and they there collect in small 

 flocks so early as August. In Massachusetts they congregate 

 in September, sometimes to the number of a hundred, but do 

 not associate much with other species. They disappear in the 

 early part of October, and retire to pass the winter in the 

 South. Before their departure they frequent the roadsides, or 

 vegetable-gardens, where they can obtain abundant food, and 

 may often be seen to pursue one another, uttering their rather 

 weak battle-cries. 



(d). Their ordinary note is a single chip, like that of the 

 Tree Sparrow. But the "Chippers " also possess a variety of 

 combined chips, and a series of querulous twitters, which they 

 employ as a battle-cry. Their nearest approach to a song is 



