FAMILY FHnglllldse. 



grasses and a few hairs, and is built upon tl e u round. 

 Egg white speckled with sienna brown. The ra i 

 the bird is throughout cast, rn North America ; it does 

 not breed north of Massachusetts, and is very uncommon 

 in New Hampshire. It is essentially a ground Sparrow 

 which seldom, if ever, flies higher than the fence rail. 



The song of the Grasshopper Sparrow is scarcely worth 

 recording on the musical staff . It is difficult to tell where 

 his voice is really pitched, but undoubtedly it is ut Inixf 

 an octave higher than the topmost C of the piano ! It is 

 a last, weak effort at music, culminating in an alphabet- 

 ical conclusion which may be represented by X Y 

 e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e ! The tones are stridulent and insectlike, 

 hence the bird's common name. There should be no 

 difficulty in identifying the voice provided one is not 

 tone-deaf ! 



White-crowned This beautifully marked Sparrow is not 



Sparrow quite as uncommon as one would suppose 



Zonotnchia 



leucophrys ^ or tne reason that he seeks the seclusion 

 L. 6.80 inches of shrubbery and underbrush and thus 

 May icth escapes notice. He is often in company 



with his near relative the White-throated Sparrow, or 

 Peabody-bird, and one has to watch closely for tho.v dif- 

 ferences in costume and song which distinguish the birds 

 apart. The White-crown, unlike the Peabody-bird, has 

 no yellow before the eye nor on the bend of the wing ; 

 also his coloring is a pronounced ashen tone quite different 

 from the warmer brown of his relative, and he lacks dis- 

 tinct wing-bars. Head striped with black and white 

 bands of equal width : a white one ii the centre of the 

 crown, the other two (one over each eye) extending back- 

 ward from the eyes; back of the neck, the throat, and 

 breast ashen gray; back darker brown-gray nr.ir^ined 

 with ashen gray ; wings dusky brown, the feathers 

 edged with gray, the coverts tipped with gray- white : 

 tail dusky brown ; under parts grayish white, the sides 

 huffish in tone. Female similarly marked. Nest of 

 grasses, and placed upon the ground or in a low bush. 

 Egg light green-blue speckled with chestnut or sienna 

 brown. Ridgway describes the range of the bird, thus : 

 90 



