FINCHES. 211 



with sandy brown, a little lilac, and one or two black scrawls 

 near the crown. The fifth is light blue, greenish-tinged, finely 

 marked and also irregularly blotched, chiefly at the crown, 

 with Vandyke brown and a little lilac, and measures .78 X .58 

 of an inch. The sixth measures .77 X -55 of an inch, and is 

 of a light but bright greenish blue, chiefly marked by cloudings 

 of Vandyke brown (in some places umber) and lilac, grouped 

 in an irregular ring about the larger end. A seventh resem- 

 bles strongly the ordinary egg of the Swamp Sparrow, and 

 another is dull white, with marking so feeble as to be almost 

 invisible. Still other forms exist, with various combinations, 

 to detail all of which would be impossible. 



c. On winter days one may sometimes see certain small 

 birds, skulking from thicket to thicket in the swamps, or in 

 other cheerless places, occasionally hopping on the ground to 

 pick up the seeds which have fallen from the weeds upon the 

 snow, and now and then emitting a rather melancholy note : 

 these are the Song Sparrows, for a few always pass the winter 

 in eastern Massachusetts, though strange to say much less com- 

 mon, at least in one township, during the past very mild winter 

 than in the preceding one, an extraordinarily severe season. 

 This was also the case with the Robins. Besides having seen 

 the Song Sparrows, I have also heard their song near Boston, 

 in every month of the year ; 81 but in the winter they are rare. 

 About the middle of March they first practice their spring 

 carols ; and those who have passed the colder weather in the 

 South then return to their spring haunts. During the latter 

 part of March and early April they are extremely abundant, 

 particularly in swamps and about vegetable-gardens, and in 

 those places associate with other species, especially the Fox- 

 colored Sparrows. They also become less shy than they are 

 in winter, and some, to a certain extent, frequent shrubbery 

 about houses, where, however, I have known one to remain 

 throughout the year. Wherever they may be, at this season, 

 they are in full song, and their haunts resound with the confu- 



81 Mr. Maynard also says (in The it (i. e., the Song Sparrow) every month 

 Naturalist's Guide, p. 118): "Mr. in the year ; has even heard it sing in 

 Brewster informs me that he has taken January." 



