156 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



most of them spend the winter in the Southern States 

 northward as far as the Middle States. They are numer- 

 ous in New Jersey from March 10 to April 10 and again 

 from October 15 to December 1, some wintering in the 

 southern part of the state. 



Their call note is a zip, but their song, not frequently 

 heard in New Jersey, is a sweet warble of full cadence . 



The food of these birds consists of grass seeds and the 

 larvae of insects. 



Sparrow, Grasshopper, or Yellow-winged Spar- 

 row. Length, five and a third inches; extent, eight 

 inches; bill, two-fifths of an inch, short and stout, dark 

 above and pale below; crown, black, feathers narrowly 

 edged with gray, a buff central stripe reaching back to 

 the neck; upper surface of the body, speckled with black, 

 chestnut and gray; wings and tail, dull brown, edged 

 with buff; below, white, strongly suffused with buff on the 

 breast and sides; bend of the wing and spot before the 

 eye, bright yellow; legs and feet, flesh color. The young 

 bird is dusky above, all the feathers bordered with buff; 

 below, white, with dusky spots on the breast and sides. 



The birds nest on the ground, the nest being built of 

 grasses, sometimes lined with hair. The eggs are from 

 four to five in number, white, with reddish brown spots, 

 and three-fourths by one- half inch in size. 



The birds breed throughout the eastern United States 

 and spend the winter in the West Indies and Mexico. 

 They are most numerous in the dry uplands. They ar- 

 rive in New Jersey about the first of May and leave about 

 October 20. 



Their song is a very weak and insectlike chirrup, some- 

 what resembling the grasshopper's; although it may be 

 heard at a distance of over a hundred feet the chances 

 are that a person not listening for it would pass a singing 

 bird by within ten feet without noticing it. 



