BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 323 
strongly-characterized notes, which, as Thoreau says, ‘‘are as 
distinct to the ear as the passage of aspark of fire shot into 
the darkness of the forest would be to the eye.” ‘Like most 
sparrows they build on the ground, amongst bushes. The 
nest is formed neatly of dried grass, weeds and mosses, and 
lined with finer grasses and fibrous roots. The eggs are gray 
ish-white, spotted and splashed with brown and pale markings, 
and five in number. 
It arrives in spring migration from the 25th of April to the 
Ist of May, and engages in nest-building from the 15th to the 
20th of that month. About the 20th of September they begin 
to leave for the South in a very quiet, sparrow-like way, appar- 
ently in families or little colonies. Its food from the moment 
of its arrival until its departure makes it a friend to the farmer 
and gardener. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Two black stripes on the crown separated by a median one 
of white; a broad superciliary stripe from the base of the man- 
dible 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 
head from behind the eye; chin white, abruptly defined against 
the dark ash of the sides of the head and upper part of the 
breast, fading into white on the belly, and margined by a nar- 
row black maxillary line; edge of wing and axillaries yellow; 
back and edges of secondaries rufous-brown, the former streaked 
with dark brown; two narrow white bands across the wing 
coverts. 
Length, 7; wing, 3.10; tail, 3.20. 
Habitat, eastern North America, west to the plains. 
Note. It has never been my fortune to hear the song of the 
White-throated Sparrow in the night, after the manner of the 
nightingale, but Samuels in his ‘“‘Birds of New England,” page 
61, says after graphically describing a bird-chorus made up of 
the notes of the Virginian owls, loons, ete., etc.: ‘After this 
had died away and all was still, there came from a bush near 
our tent, the almost heavenly song of the White-throated Spar- 
row, the ‘Nightingale of the North.’ One cannot imagine the 
effect produced by the contrast; he must be on the spot in the 
dark night, and through the sighings of the winds amid the 
grand old trees, hear the loons, and then the silence broken by 
the beautiful song of the nightingale.” 
SPIZELLA MONTICOLA (GMELIN). (559. ) 
TREE SPARROW. 
A very abundant species which seldom, if ever, leaves the 
state during the coldest winters, and breeds extensively about 
the lakes and streams bordered with alders, willows and low 
