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THE CHIPPING SPARROW. 



Fringilla socialis, Wils. 



PLATE CIV. Male. 



Few birds are more common throughovit the United States than this 

 gentle arid harmless httle finch. It inhabits the towns, villages, orchards, 

 gardens, borders of fields, and prairie grounds. Abundant in the whole 

 of the Middle States during spring, summer, and autumn ; it removes to 

 the southern parts to spend the winter, and there you may meet with it 

 in flocks almost anywhere, even in the open woods. So social is it in its 

 character that you see it at that season in company with the Song Sparrow, 

 the White-throated, the Savannah, the Field, and almost every other spe- 

 cies of the genus. The sandy roads exposed to the sun's rays are daily 

 visited by it, where, among the excrement of horses and cattle, it searches 

 for food, or among the tall grasses of our old fields it seeks for seeds, small 

 berries, and insects of various kinds. Should the weather be cold it enters 

 the barn- yard, and even presents itself in the piazza. It reaches Louisiana, 

 the Carolinas, and othef southern districts in November, and returns about 

 the middle of March to the Middle and Eastern States, where it breeds. 



Early in May the Chipping Sparrow has already formed its nest, 

 which it has placed indifferently in the apple or peach tree of the orchard 

 or garden, in any evergreen bush or cedar, high or low, as it may best 

 suit, but never on the ground. It is small and compai-atively slender, be- 

 ing formed of a scanty collection of fine dried grass, and lined with horse 

 or cow hair. The eggs are four or five, of a bright greenish-blue colour, 

 slightly marked with dark and light-brown spots, chiefly distributed towards 

 the larger end. They are more pointed at the small end than is common in 

 this genus. Although timorous, these birds express great anxiety when their 

 nest is disturbed, especially the female. They generally raise two broods 

 in the season, south of Pennsylvania, and not unfrequently in Virginia and 

 Maryland. 



The song of this species, if song it can with propriety be called, is 

 heard at all hours of the day, the bird seeming determined to make up by 

 quantity for defect in the quality of its notes. Mounted on the topmost 

 branch of any low tree or bush, or on the end of a fence stake, it emits 



