248 



While not unlikely a permanent resident in the southeastern section, it is only 

 a summer visitor in the other portions of the State, arriving from the south in 

 late March or April. The latest records in the autumn are September 20 at 

 Raleigh, and November 1 at Weaverville. 



This is a shy, secretive bird with a loud, ringing song, and is usually found in 

 old, partly grown-up fields or in pastures. The nest is built of grass, on the ground, 

 and is domed over, the entrance being on one side. The eggs are pure white, 

 unmarked. 



Genus Melospiza (Baird) 



A genus of small sparrows with rounded tails and short wings. 



KEY TO SPECIES 



1. Breast not streaked. Swamp Sparrow. 



1. Breast streaked. See 2. 



2. Ground color of underparts white. Song Sparrow. 

 2. Broad band across chest, buff. Lincoln's Sparrow. 



242. Melospiza melodia melodia (Wils.). SONG SPARROW. 



Description: Ads. Crown rufous-brown, with a grayish line through its center; a grayish 

 line over the eye; a rufous-brown line from behind the eye to the nape; feathers of the back streaked 

 with black and margined with rufous-brown and grayish; greater wing-coverts with black spots 

 at their tips; no white wing-bars or yellow on the wing; tail rufous grayish brown, the middle 

 feathers darker along their shafts; outer feathers shortest; sides of the throat with black or blackish 

 streaks; breast with wedge-shaped streaks of black and rufous-brown which tend to form one 

 larger blotch on the center; sides washed with brownish and streaked with black and rufous- 

 brown; middle of the belly white. L., 6.30; W., 2. 52; T., 2.62; B., .49. (Chap., Birds ofE.N.A.) 



Range. Eastern United States, breeding mainly north of North Carolina. 



Range in North Carolina. Whole State in winter; in summer breeding throughout the moun- 

 tains and to some extent on the coast. 



TIG. 197. SONG SPARROW. 



The Song Sparrow is apparently only a winter visitor in central and most of 

 the eastern portions of North Carolina, arriving from the north about the middle 

 of October and leaving early in April. 



Although Cairns never detected it breeding during his observations in Buncombe 

 County, and Brewster failed to find it in Macon, Jackson, Haywood, and Bun- 

 combe counties in 1885, yet at the present time it seems to breed in many parts 

 of the mountain region. The localities from which we have summer records are 

 Highlands and Aquone in Macon County, Blantyre in Transylvania County, and 

 Hendersonville in Henderson County, at all of which places it has been observed 



