SPECIES 3. FRINGILLA PUSILLA. 

 FIELD SPARROW. 

 [Plate XVI. Fig. 2.] 



Passer agrestis, BAIITRAM, p. 291. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 6560. 



THIS is the smallest of all our Sparrows, and in Pennsylvania 

 is generally migratory. It arrives early in April, frequents dry 

 fields covered with long grass, builds a small nest on the ground, 

 generally at the foot of a briar, lines it with horse hair; lays six 

 eggs so 'thickly sprinkled with ferruginous as to appear alto- 

 gether of that tint; and raises two and often three, broods in a 

 season. It is more frequently found in the middle of fields and 

 orchards than any of the other species, which usually lurk along 

 hedge rows. It has no song; but a kind of chirrupping not much 

 different from the chirpings of a cricket. Towards Fall they 

 assemble in loose flocks in orchards and corn-fields, in search of 

 Ihe seeds of various rank weeds; and are then very numerous. As 

 the weather becomes severe, with deep snow, they disappear. 

 In the lower parts of North and South Carolina 1 found this spe- 

 cies in multitudes in the months of January and February. 

 When disturbed they take to the bushes, clustering so close to- 

 gether that a dozen may easily be shot at a time. I continued to 

 see them equally numerous through the whole lower parts of 

 Georgia; from whence, according to Mr. Abbot, they all dis- 

 appear early in the spring. 



None of our birds have been more imperfectly described than 

 that family of the Finch tribe usually called Sparrows. They 

 have been considered as too insignificant for particular notice, 

 yet they possess distinct characters, and some of them pecu- 

 liarities, well worthy of notice. They are innocent in their ha- 

 bits, subsisting chiefly on the small seeds of wild plants, and sel- 



