300 FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



Nest, of grasses, on the ground or in bushes. Eggs, four to five, pale green- 

 ish blue, speckled and spotted with bay, especially at the larger end, -90 x -62 

 (Davie). 



This is one of the aristocrats of the family. Its size and its hand- 

 some markings at once distinguish it from its congeners, and are sure 

 to attract attention. Though its season of love and music is spent in 

 the far north, it often favors us with selections of its melodies as it 

 rests in thickets and hedgerows while slowly passing through our 

 country on its northward pilgrimage. Its usual song is like the latter 

 half of the White-throat's familiar refrain, repeated a number of times 

 with a peculiar sad cadence and in a clear, soft whistle that is charac- 

 teristic of the group. It resembles its relatives also in singing its 

 sweetest songs in the woods, sometimes during the darkest hours of 

 the night. ERNEST E. THOMPSON. 



558. Zonotrichia albicollis (Gmel.}. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW ; 

 PEABODY-BIRD. Ad. A yellow line before the eye ; bend of the wing yellow ; 

 center of the crown with a white stripe bounded on either side by much wider 

 black stripes; a white stripe from the eye passes backward along the side of 

 the head; back rufous or rufous-brown, streaked with black and slightly 

 margined with whitish ; rump grayish brown ; greater and middle wing-cov- 

 erts tipped with white ; tail grayish brown ; under parts grayish, more so on 

 the breast; throat with a square white patch; belly whitish; flanks and 

 under tail-coverts tinged with grayish brown. Im. Yellow before the eye, 

 and on the bend of the wing duller; crown streaks brownish ashy and mixed 

 chestnut and black, instead of white and black; throat patch less sharply 

 defined. L., 6-74; W., 2-89; T., 2-86; B., -44. 



Range. Eastern North America; breeds from northern Michigan, and 

 occasionally Massachusetts, northward to Labrador; winters from Massachu- 

 setts to Florida. 



Washington, very common W. V., Sept. 28 to May 20. Sing Sing, com- 

 mon T. V., Apl. 10 to May 21 ; Sept, 20 to Oct. 30 ; a few winter. Cambridge, 

 very common T. V., Apl. 25 to May 15 ; Oct. 1 to Nov. 10 ; a few winter. 



Nest, of coarse grasses, rootlets, moss, strips of bark, etc., lined with finer 

 grasses, on the ground or in bushes. Eggs, four to five, bluish white, finely 

 and evenly speckled or heavily and irregularly blotched with pale rufous- 

 brown, -82 x -60. 



In September, when the hedgerows and woodland undergrowths 

 begin to rustle with Sparrows, Juncos, and Towhees, I watch eagerly 

 for the arrival of these welcome fall songsters. 



There is little in their modest appearance to tell one, as they feed 

 on the ground near their haunts, of their vocal powers, and one might 

 be pardoned for believing that a feeble tseep was their only note. I 

 whistle a bar or two of greeting in their own language. They are evi- 

 dently puzzled, but make no reply, for it has apparently been agreed 

 among themselves that singing shall not begin for at least a week after 



