22 CHIPPING SPARROW. 



with rapidity six or seven notes resembling the sounds produced by smart- 

 ly striking two pebbles together, each succeeding note rising in strength, 

 although the song altogether is scarcely louder than the chirping of a 

 cricket. It is often heard during the calm of a fine night, or in the warmer 

 days of winter. 



These gentle birds migrate by day ; and no sooner has October re- 

 turned and mellowed the tints of the sylvan foliage, than flitting before 

 you on the road, you see family after family moving southward, chasing 

 each other as if in play, sweeping across the path, or flocking suddenly to 

 a tree if surprised, but almost instantly returning to the ground and re- 

 suming their line of march. At the approach of night they throw them- 

 selves into thickets of brambles, where, in company with several other spe- 

 cies, they keep up a murmuring conversation until long after dark. Their 

 flight is short, rather irregular, and seldom more elevated than the height 

 of moderate-sized trees. 



With the exception of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, the Marsh Hawk, 

 and the Black Snake, these birds have few enemies, children being gene- 

 rally fond of protecting them. Little or no difference is perceptible be- 

 tween the sexes, and the young acquire the full plumage of their parents 

 at the earliest approach of spring. 



I did not find one individual of the species in Newfoundland, Labra- 

 dor, or Nova Scotia. 



Fringilla socialis, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. p. 109. 



Chipping Sparrow, Fringilla socialis, Wih. Anier. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 12?. 

 PL 16. Fig. 5 Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 497. 



Adult male. Plate CIV. 



Bill short, rather small, conical, acute ; upper mandible rather nar- 

 rower than the lower, very slightly declinate at the tip, rounded on the 

 sides, as is the lower, which has the edges inflected and acute ; the gap 

 line straight, slightly deflected at the base. Nostrils basal, roundish, 

 concealed by the feathers. Head rather large, neck short, body robust. 

 Legs of moderate length, slender ; tarsus longer than the middle toe, 

 covered anteriorly with a few longish scutella ; toes scutellate above, free, 

 the lateral ones nearly equal ; claws slender, greatly compressed, acute, 

 slightly arched, that of the hind toe little larger. 



Plumage soft, rather compact. Wings shortish, curved, rounded, the 



