420 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



otherwise grayish, but tinged with brownish or buffy in win- 

 ter; sides of breast with a rusty spot; lower parts whitish, 

 tinged with grayish or buffy, or both, anteriorly; bill red- 

 dish cinnamon. Young : Essentially like adult, but colors 

 duller and more suffused, markings of head much less dis- 

 tinct, and lower parts, especially breast, streaked with dusky.) 

 e l . Color much more rusty above, with median grayish crown- 

 stripe usually very narrow and indistinct (sometimes obso- 

 lete), and wings and tail shorter ; length 5.10-6.00, wing 

 2.45-2.70, tail 2.50-2.80. Nest on or near ground in, old 

 weed-grown fields, thickets, etc., composed mainly of 

 slender dry grass-stems. Eggs 3-5, .68 X -51, white, green- 

 ish white, or buffy white, speckled with reddish brown. 

 Hab. Eastern United States and southern Canada, west 

 to edge of Great Plains (eastern Nebraska, Fort Smith, 

 Arkansas, eastern Texas, etc.). 



563. S. pusilla (WiLS.). Field Sparrow. 



c*. Color much less rusty above, with median grayish crown-stripe 

 always (?) broad and very distinct, the lateral crown-stripes 

 and postocular streak much paler and less rusty brown, 

 back pale grayish buffy, more narrowly streaked with black 

 and slightly tinged or mixed with rusty, and wings and tail 

 longer; length about 5.80-6.10, wing 2.60-2.80, tail 2.80- 

 3.10. Hab. Great Plains, from southern Texas (Laredo, 

 etc.) north to Wyoming Territory and western Nebraska. 

 . S. pusilla arenacea CHADS. Western Field Sparrow. 1 

 d 2 . Upper parts without any rusty, and top of head and hind-neck dis- 

 tinctly streaked with dusky. 



e 1 . Head distinctly striped ; ear-coverts light buffy brown, in 

 marked contrast with the very distinct broad superciliary 

 and malar stripes of dull whitish, and ashy of sides of neck. 

 Adult : Top of head pale raw-umber brown, broadly 

 streaked with black and divided by a distinct median 

 stripe of light brownish gray; light brown ear-coverts 

 bordered above by a very distinct postocular streak of 

 dark brown or dusky, and along lower edge by a rictal 

 streak of the same ; whitish malar streak usually bordered 

 below by a more or less distinct grayish or brownish 

 streak along each side of throat ; hind-neck and sides of 

 neck ashy, in more or less marked contrast with brown of 

 ear-coverts and crown; back light brown, broadly streaked 

 with black. (In winter, the colors much browner, obscuring 

 gray of neck and strongly tingeing chest and sides.) Young: 



1 Spizella piuilla arennceu CIIADDOURNE, Auk, iii. April, 1836, 248. 



i 



