SPECIES 6. FRINGILLJi SOCMLIS. 



CHIPPING SPARROW. 



[Plate XVI. Fig. 5.] 



Passer domesticus, the little House Sparrow, or Chipping-bird, 

 BAKTRAM, p. 291. PEALE'S Museum, J\To. 6571. 



THIS species, though destitute of the musical talents of the 

 former, is perhaps more generally known, because more fami- 

 liar and even domestic. He inhabits, during summer, the city, 

 in common with man, building in the branches of the trees 

 with which our streets and gardens are ornamented j and glean- 

 ing up crumbs from our yards, and even our doors, to feed his 

 more advanced young with. I have known one of these birds 

 attend regularly every day, during a whole summer, while the 

 family were at dinner, under a piazza, fronting the garden, and 

 pick up the crumbs that were thrown to him. This sociable 

 habit, which continues chiefly during the summer, is a singu- 

 lar characteristic. Towards the end of summer he takes to the 

 fields, and hedges, until the weather becomes severe, with snow, 

 when he departs for the south. 



The Chipping-bird builds his net most commonly in a cedar 

 bush, and lines it thickly with cow-hair. The female lays four 

 or five eggs of a light blue colour, with a few dots of purplish 

 black near the great end. 



This species may easily be distinguished from the four pre- 

 ceding ones, by his black bill and frontlet, and by his famili- 

 arity in summer; yet, in the month of August and September, 

 when they moult, the black on the front and partially on the bill 

 disappears. The young are also without the black during the 

 first season. 



