FAMILY Frinfillidee. 



observer will find it easy to flush the bird, and by persist- 

 ingly following its erratic and darting, low flight, may 

 follow it from point to point among the tussocks of beach 

 grass; each time it rises it utters a sharp tsip in D or E 

 beyond the highest C of the piano keyboard, thus: 



which is exactly one of the chipping notes of the Chipping 

 Sparrow. Commonly the bird is found in broad reaches 

 of beach grass in limited numbers, but occasionally it is 

 associated with the Shore Lark and Snowflake during the 

 winter months' feeding at the margin of the water. In 

 spring, one may be fortunate enough to hear the reiterated 

 note which is a component part of the song, as is also high 

 C, D or E. The complete song I have not heard, but 

 from studied descriptions with which I have been kindly 

 furnished, there is very small question about the following 

 extemporized form being substantially correct: 



.TV?/ 



The whole song is not more than three seconds in duration, 

 and the syllabic rendering is written, "Tsip, tsip, ts-e-e-e-e 

 pr-r-r-r e-ah,"* which certainly is reminiscent of the Song 

 Sparrow's melodic form. Bradford Torrey writes in The 

 Footpath Way, "I have now seen the Ipswich Sparrow in 

 every one of our seven colder months, from October to 

 April." My own last observation was secured in Novem- 

 ber, 1918, on the sand dunes of Ipswich, Mass. 



*Vide The jpswick Sparrow. Dr. Jonathan D wight. 

 284 



