328 NOTES ON THE 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Back and sides of hind neck ashy; prevailing color above, 
pale brownish yellow, with a tinge of grayish; feathers of back 
and crown streaked conspicuously with blackish, the latter 
with a median ashy, and a lateral or superciliary ashy white 
stripe; beneath, whitish tinged with brown on the breast and 
sides, and an indistinct narrow brown streak on the edge of 
the chin. Ear coverts, brownish-yellow, margined above and 
below by dark brown. 
Length, 4.75; wing, 2.55. 
Habitat, interior of North America. 
SPIZELLA PUSILLA (Witson). (563.) 
FIELD SPARROW. _ 
About the 25th of April, or a little earlier, the Field Spar- 
rows have got here as unobserved asa ‘‘frown upon the brow of — 
twilight,” and are then found in dry, bushy pastures, and low, 
open woods, away from the dwellings of men. By the second 
week in May they are engaged in constructing their nests of 
dried grasses and fine twigs loosely arranged and placed on 
the ground under a bush, or in it, as is the case occasionally. 
Four eggs constitute the complement, colored grayish-white 
with thinly scattered spots and blotches of reddish-brown and 
lavender. During incubation the male is heard singing from a 
perch on a low tree, or a rail of the fence. His song is a 
plaintive, humble ditty, poured out in the early morn and eve. 
In dark, cloudy weather he sings all the day long, as if fully 
appreciating the need of cheering the little bird-wife in the 
patient waitings of her maternity. 
The song has no claims to melodious variety, while it fills no 
mean place in the grand choral of usual song. The best idea of 
it may be expressed in a recently employed combination of the 
following syllables adopted by Mr. Langille: ‘‘Free-o, free-o, 
free-o, free-o, free, free, free, free, free, free; the first four louder, 
well prolonged and on a higher key, while the remaining notes 
run rapidly to a lower pitch, growing softer and weaker to the 
end, the last being barely preceptible at a short distance. The 
song is quite constantly repeated at short intervals, and has a 
rather melancholy, but soothing, and pleasing effect, which 
sensitive natures readily recognize, and do not easily forget. 
‘Tt is the homely, pensive poetry of the thicket, that line of 
land where the cultivated beauty and fertility of the fields end, 
and the solitude and gloom of the forest begin.” 
