304 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Length, about six and twenty-five one-hundredths inches ; wing, three and ten 

 one-hundredths inches. 



Hub. United States from Atlantic to the Pacific; or else one species to the high 

 central plains, and another from this to the Pacific. 



This Sparrow is abundantly distributed throughout New 

 England in the breeding season. It arrives about the first 

 week in April, and commences building about the last of 

 that month in Massachusetts ; in Maine, about the first 

 of June. The nest, like that of the preceding species, is 

 built in open, dry pastures and fields, at the foot of a tuft 

 of grass, and is composed of the same materials and con- 

 structed in the same form as the others ; and I would here 

 remark, that, of our New-England sparrows, it is impossible 

 to distinguish most species, either in manner and material 

 of nest, and form and color of eggs, in the great variations 

 which exist in them. The descriptions already given, and 

 those which follow, are made from the average specimens, 

 or in the forms in which they are most often met. The 

 eggs of the Grass Finch are usually about four in number : 

 they are of a grayish, livid-white color, and marked irregu- 

 larly with spots of obscure brown, over which are blotches 

 of black. Dimensions of specimens from various localities 

 vary from .88 by .60 to .76 by .58 inch. Two broods, and 

 sometimes three, are reared in the season. 



The habits of this and the succeeding species so much 

 resemble those of the preceding, that it is difficult to 

 describe either so that they may be readily recognized. 

 The present bird is more civilized in its habits, and usually 

 resides much nearer the habitations of man than the others ; 

 but in other respects it resembles them in all their charac- 

 teristics. 



COTURNICULUS, BONAPARTE. 



Coterniculus, BONAPARTE, Geog. List (1838). (Type Fringilla passerina, Wils.) 

 Bill very large and stout; the under mandible broader, but lower than the upper, 

 which is considerably convex at the basal portion of its upper outline ; legs mod- 

 erate, apparently not reaching to the end of the tail; the tarsus appreciably longer 



