THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 237 



Common winter visitant. Arrives October 25th, departs April 15th. 



This species, in many ways a large edition of the Field Sparrow, 

 frequents the alder thickets and brier patches, and even when the 

 ground is white with snow they remain in their chosen shelter, indulg- 

 ing in a chorus of half-formed songs as the sun begins to warm them 

 up a suggestion of what they can do in their summer home to the 

 northward. The plain breast with a single black spot will distinguish 

 the Tree Sparrow from all other species. 



560 Spizella passerina (Bechstein). 

 Chipping Sparrow. 



PLATE 57. 



Adults. Length, 5-5.75. Wing, 2.75. Back, light brown, broadly streaked 

 with black ; hind neck and rump, gray ; crown, chestnut ; forehead, black, with 

 a median gray streak ; a white line over the eye and a black one through it ; 

 wings edged with pale brown ; two narrow buffy bars ; under parts, white, 

 shaded with gray on the sides. In winter the chestnut-brown is veiled with 

 buff and streaked with black, and the white areas are tinged with buff. 



Young in first summer. Above, buffy-brown, heavily streaked with black, 

 with sometimes a faint tinge of chestnut on the crown ; below, white, streaked 

 with dusky, except on the middle of the abdomen. 



Nest of fine rootlets and twigs, lined abundantly with horsehair ; eggs, four 

 to five, greenish-blue, marked with black about the larger end, .70 x .52. 



Abundant summer resident. Arrives March 22d (March 29th), 

 departs October 25th. Rarely occurs in the winter in the southern 

 counties. 



The Chippy is the most familiar of our Sparrows, preferring the 

 gardens and orchards to the swamps and woodlands. IJe picks up his 

 food from the lawn or gravel walk, and if unmolested rears his brood 

 in the vines about the porch, and trills his song from the top of the 

 evergreen bush in the yard. This effort is not of a high order as a 

 musical production, consisting of a monotonous insect-like trill, 

 "chippy, chippy, chippy, chippy." 



In autumn, old and young flock out into the fields along with the 

 other Sparrows, and occasionally one or two may remain in the winter 

 Sparrow flocks. Mr. W. L. Baily noted one at Seaville, Cape May 

 count}', late in November. 1 



1 Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 11?. 



