AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 15 



ses, and, finally, good taste and judgment, and a constant exercise of all 

 the wits and patience one has at command are all required. It is only 

 by such means and procedures that the naturalist photographer can ever 

 hope for even partial success and mediocre achievement in this truly in- 

 teresting field. 



SWAMP SPARROW. 



A. O. U. No. 584. (Mclospiza georglana.) 



RANGE. 



Eastern North America from the Atlantic to the Plains and from 

 southern Canada and New Foundland to the Gulf States, the latter lo- 

 cality being its winter quarters. Breeds from the Northern United 

 States northwards. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, 5.75 in.; tail, 2.25 in. Bill, feet and eye, brown. Adult in 

 spring: — Forehead, black. Top of head, chestnut, edged with blackish. 

 Back, dull yellowish, broadly streaked with black. Primaries and tail, 

 reddish brown. Line over the eye and band extending across the 

 breast and to the back of the neck, gray. Sides of the head and flanks, 

 yellowish brown. In the fall the chestnut on the head is nearly ob- 

 scured by black streaks; this is also the case with the young birds. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



The Swamp Sparrow constructs its nest on the ground, in low 

 swampy localities. It is generally concealed in some thicket by over- 

 hanging clumps of grass. The eggs are three or four in number, pale 

 blue, and quite heavily blotched with various shades of brown. They 

 breed in the northern parts of the United States and in southern Cana- 

 da about the latter part of May. 



HABITS. 



All day long, and growing in intensity as dusk approaches, comes 

 from the bog, the shrill calls of numerous young frogs, interspersed 

 now and then with the deep bass voice of some of their elders; here the 

 turtle basks in the sunshine on some half sunken log, and the muskrat 

 leaves a widening trail of ripples as he wends his way up the stream; 

 numerous unstable clumps of grass dot the edges of the creek, and be- 

 neath the arch of overhanging alders is a tangled mass of weeds and 

 blackberry vines. 



