FOX-COLOURED SPARROW. 255 



they breed: for I once heard a single one, a little before the 

 time they leave us, warble out a few very sweet low notes. 



The Fox-coloured Sparrow is six inches long, and nine and 

 a quarter broad; the upper part of the head and neck is cinereous, 

 edged with rust colour; back handsomely mottled with reddish 

 brown and cinereous; wings and tail bright ferruginous; the pri- 

 maries dusky within and at the tips, the first and second rows 

 of coverts, tipt with white; breast and belly white; the former, 

 as well as the ear feathers, marked with large blotches of bright 

 bay, or reddish brown, and the beginning of the belly with 

 little arrow-shaped spots of black; the tail coverts and tail are a 

 bright fox colour; the legs and feet a dirty brownish white, or 

 clay colour, and very strong; the bill is strong, dusky above 

 and yellow below; iris of the eye hazel. The chief difference 

 in the female is that the wings are not of so bright a bay, in- 

 clining more to a drab; yet this is scarcely observable, unless 

 by a comparison of the two together. They are generally very 

 fat, live on grass seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel. 



