THE WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. 311 



of an inch in length, are proportionally broad, of a light sea-green 

 color, mottled toward the larger end with brownish spots and 

 blotches ; a few spots of a lighter tint being dispersed over the 

 whole. . . . We found many nests, which were all placed on the 

 ground or among the moss, and were all constructed alike. This 

 species deposit their eggs from the beginning to the end of June. 

 In the beginning of August, I saw many young that were able to 

 fly ; and, by the twelfth of that month, the birds had already com- 

 menced their southward migration. The young follow their parents 

 until nearly full grown. 



" The food of this species, while in Labrador, consists of small 

 coleopterous insects, grass seeds, and a variety of berries, as well 

 as some minute shell-fish, for which they frequently search the mar- 

 gins of ponds or the seashore. At the approach of autumn, they 

 pursue insects on the wing to a short distance, and doubtless secure 

 some in that manner." 



The song of the White-crowned Sparrow consists of six 

 or seven notes, the first of which is loud, clear, and musi- 

 cal, although of a plaintive nature ; the next broader, less 

 firm, and seeming merely a second to the first; the rest 

 form a cadence, diminishing in power to the last note, which 

 sounds as if the final effort of the musician. These notes 

 are repeated at short intervals during the whole day, even 

 on those dismal days produced by the thick fogs of the 

 country where it breeds, and where this species is, of all, 

 the most abundant. 



ZONOTRICHIA ALBICOLLIS. Bonaparte. 

 The White-throated Sparrow ; Peabody Bird. 



Fringilla albicollls, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 926. Wils. Am. Orn., III. 

 (1811) 51. 



Zonotrichia aflricollis, Bonap. Consp. (1850), 478. 



Fringilla Pennsyhanica, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 42; V. 497. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Two black stripes on the crown separated by a median one of white ; a broad 

 superciliary stripe from the base of the mandible to the occiput, yellow as far as 

 the middle of the eye and white behind this ; a broad black streak on the side of the 



