NOliTH AMKIilCAN BIRDfi. 



siiiuiiRT resident. It breeds in Soutliern Wisconsin and in Iowa, but is not 

 abundant. It does not appear to liavo been found west of tlie Missouri 

 \'alley. 



This Sparrow arrives in Massachusetts early in April, and is found almost 

 exclusively in oj)en pastures, old fields, and in clearings remote from villages. 

 It is a shy, retiring l>ird, and seems to avoid the near presence of man. Wil- 

 son states that it has no song, nothing but a kind of chirruping, not much 

 superior to the chiri)ing of a cricket. But this is quite a mistake, as it is 

 in reality a very varied and fine singer. Its notes are not very powerful, 

 and cannot ))e heard any distance, but they are very pleasing, altliough 

 little known or ap])reciated. It continues in full song until int » July, when 

 the second brood is a])out hatcliing, when its notes relax, but do not cease 

 until just before its departure in Sei)tendjer or early Octol)er. 



Mr. I). 1). Iluglies, of Grand IJapids, Mich., in an interesting paper on the 

 habits of this species, speaks of its beautiful tinkling song as one of its most 

 marked features. To his ear it resembles the ringing of a tiny bell more 

 nearly than anything else. In the early morning and at evening the fields 

 ring with their plaintive and tender peals. It sings at all hours of the day, 

 during the nesting-season, even in the noonday heat of sunnner, when most 

 other birds are silent. 



In Virginia these birds may be found throughout the year, though probably 

 not the same birds in the same localities, some retiring farther south and 

 otliers coming to take their places from the north. In winter they are found 

 in the greatest abundance in South Carolina and Georgia, occurring in large 

 loose flocks, found chiefly along the roadsides and in old fields and pastures 

 in the rural districts. 



The Field Sparrow nests both on tlie ground and in low bushes, or among 

 tangled clusters of vines. 1 have found their nests in all these situations, 

 and have no doubt the nature of the surface mav have somethinu to do with 

 the position. In high dry pastures, in sheltered situations, I have always 

 found their nests on the ground. In the wet meadows and fields subject to 

 a rise of water, as about the Potomac, near Washington, where these liirds 

 are very abundant, they almost invariably nest in bushes at a height of two 

 or three feet. 



Mr. Audubon says that during the winter these birds are quite common 

 throughout Louisiana, and the country about the Mississip[)i, as far as Ken- 

 tucky. They begin to depart from the South early in March, and move slowly 

 northward as the season advances. He states that they begin to nest in 

 May, and raise three broods in a season. This is not tlie case in New Eng- 

 land, where they do not often have more than a single brood. 



Their nests are constructed in a manner very similar to those of the Chip- 

 ping Sparrow, loosely made of a few stems of vegetables, grasses, and sedges, 

 and lined with hair or flue rootlets. Those placed on the ground are larger 

 and more bulky, and those wrought into the tv>qgs of a bush are made with 





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