184 



This is the most famous songster of the northern woods. At its best 

 the song is a clear, flute-like, slowly-measured whistle which has been very 

 well put into words. "Hard-times-can-a-da-can-a-da-can-ada" or "Poor-Bill- 

 Pea-bo-dy-Pea-bo-dy-Pea-bo-dy''. The White-throat is a brushwood bird; 

 tangled thickets or brush piles in the vicinity of open ground are its 

 favourite haunts. Throughout most of the cultivated sections of Canada 

 the bird is a migrant only, and its best song is rarely heard. In the 

 autumn, when the young birds fly south the notes are heard in a softened, 

 shortened version. 



Economic Status. The White-throat is a valuable bird. It is important 

 as a destroyer of weed seeds, especially of ragweed, and consumes a con- 

 siderable number of insects and a little wild fruit. As the species comes 

 down in great numbers to the thickly cultivated sections in early autumn, 

 its effect on the succeeding season's weed crop must be pronounced. 



Genus Spizella. Small Bush-sparrows. 



559. Tree Sparrow. FR. LE PINSON DE MONTAGNE. Spizella monticola. L, 6 36. 

 Plate XXXII B. 



Distinctions. Much like the Chipping and Field Sparrows, but larger and the bill 

 yellow with dark tip instead of black as in the former, or cinnamon as in the latter and with 

 a semi-concealed dark spot in the middle of the breast. 



Field Marks. Red-brown cap, prominent white wing-bars, ashy grey throat, and 

 dark spot in middle of the evenly coloured unspotted breast. 



Nesting. On or near the ground, in nest of grasses, rootlets, and hair. 



Distribution. Eastern North America. Breeds in the far north beyond the limits of 

 civilization; winters in northern United States. 



S UBSPECIES. Eastern and western subspecies of the Tree Sparrow occur in Canada. 

 The former is the type form and the only one that occurs within the region covered by this 

 work. 



Among the hosts of Sparrows that congregate in the shrubbery in the 

 autumn or return early in the spring, is the Tree Sparrow. In the 

 southern parts of the Dominion it sometimes remains all winter, but is 

 a migrant elsewhere. It is a natty little bird and its modest song in the 

 early spring is most welcome after the long silent winter. 



Economic Status. The Tree Sparrow is valuable for its destruction of 

 weed seeds and seems to have no bad habits. 



560. Chipping Sparrow. CHIPPIE. HAIR-BIRD. FR. LE PETIT PINSON A COURONNE 

 ROTJSSE. Spizella pdsserina. L, 5-37. Plate XXXIII A. 



Distinctions. A familiar bird, separable from the Swamp and Tree Sparrows which, 

 like it, have red caps, by size; and from them and the Field Sparrow by its black bill and 

 the black stripe through the eye. Juveniles have streaked heads and closely resemble 

 the Clay-coloured Sparrow, a western bird that occasionally may be met with 

 in far western Ontario. The Chipping Sparrow, however, has a slaty instead of an olive- 

 buff rump. 



Field Marks. A small, slim Sparrow with red cap, unstreaked breast, and a black 

 line through the eye. Its long-drawn out song, a series of unaccented chips running into 

 each other in a single sustained trill, is very characteristic. 



Nesting. In trees or bushes, in nest of grasses, rootlets, and fibres plentifully inter- 

 mixed with long hairs. The amount of horsehair used in the nest is the origin of one 

 of this bird's popular names. 



Distribution. Eastern North America to well north of civilization. Breeds in Canada 

 wherever found. 



SUBSPECIES. The form of the Chipping Sparrow occurring in eastern Canada 

 is the Eastern Chipping Sparrow, the type form. Another subspecies occurs in the west. 



