THE SONG SPARROW. 321 



constructed of fine twigs and roots and grasses, and is almost 

 invariably lined with horsehairs ; hence its name, in some 

 localities, of " Hair-bird," " Hair Sparrow." The eggs are 

 usually five in number. Their color is a bluish-green ; and 

 they are marked with spots and lines of black and obscure- 

 brown, which are thickest at the great end : some specimens 

 have these spots confluent into a sort of ring. The dimen- 

 sions vary from .74 by .50 to .70 by .48 inch. This species 

 is the most often chosen by the parasitic Cow-bird as a parent 

 for its young ; and many ornithologists account by this fact 

 for its persistent familiarity with man. 



About the middle of October, the old and young birds 

 gather into small flocks, and proceed leisurely on the south- 

 ern migration. 



MELOSPIZA, BAIRD. 



Body stout; bill conical, very obsoletely notched or smooth, somewhat com- 

 pressed ; lower mandible not so deep as the upper ; commissure nearly straight ; gonys 

 a little curved; feet stout, not stretching beyond the tail; tarsus a little longer 

 than the middle toe; outer toe a little longer than the inner, its claw not quite 

 reaching to the base of the middle one; hind toe appreciably longer than the middle 

 one; wings quite short and rounded, scarcely reaching beyond the base of the tail; 

 the tertials considerably longer than the secondaries; the quills considerably gradu- 

 ated ; the fourth longest ; the first not longer than the tertials, and almost the short- 

 est of the primaries; tail moderately long, and considerably graduated; the feathers 

 oval at the tips ; crown and back similar in color and streaked ; beneath thickly 

 streaked; tail immaculate. 



This genus differs from Zonotrickia in shorter, more graduated tail, rather longer 

 hind toe, much more rounded wing, which is shorter; the tertiaries longer; the first 

 quill almost the shortest, and not longer than the tertials. The under parts are 

 spotted ; the crown streaked and like the back. 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA. Baird. 

 The Song Sparrow. 



Fringilla melodia, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 125; Aud. Orn. Biog., I. (1832) 

 126; V. 507. 



DESCRIPTION. 



General tint of upper parts rufous-brown, streaked with dark-brown and ashy- 

 gray ; the crown is rufous, with a superciliary and median stripe of dull-gray, the 

 former lighter; nearly white anteriorly, where it has a faint shade of yellow; each 

 feather of the crown with a narrow streak of dark-brown; interscapulars dark- 

 brown in the centre, then rufous, then grayish on the margin ; rump grayer than 



21 



