WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. 89 



Humbly and fervently did I pray for a continuation of those blessings, 

 throuo-h which I now hoped to see my undertaking completed, and again 

 to join my ever-dear family. 



I first became acquainted with the White-crowned Sparrow at Hen- 

 derson, in the autumn of 1817. I then thought it the handsomest bird 

 of its kind, and my opinion stiU is that none other known to me as a visi- 

 ter or inhabitant of the United States, exceeds it in beauty. I procured 

 five individuals, three of which were in full plumage and proved to be 

 males. The sex of the other two could not be ascertained ; but I have 

 since become convinced that these birds lose the white stripes on the head 

 in the winter season, when they might be supposed to be of a different 

 species. During spring and summer the male and the female are of equal 

 beauty, the former being only a little larger than the latter. The young 

 which I procured in Labrador, shewed the white stripes on the head as 

 they were fully fledged, and I think they retain those marks in autumn 

 lonsrer than the old birds, of which the feathers have become much worn 

 at that season. In the winter of 1833, I procured at Charleston in 

 South Carolina, one in its brown livery. 



One day, while near American Harbour, in Labrador, I observed a 

 pair of these birds frequently resorting to a small hummock of firs, where 

 I concluded they must have had a nest. After searching in vain, I inti- 

 mated my suspicion to my young friends, when we all crept through the 

 tangled branches, and examined the place, but without success. Deter- 

 mined, however, to obtain our object, we returned with hatchets, cut 

 down every tree to its roots, removed each from the spot, pulled up all 

 the mosses between them, and completely cleared the place ; yet no nest 

 did we find. Our disappointment was the greater that we saw the male 

 bird frequently flying about with food in its bill, no doubt intended for 

 its mate. In a short while, the pair came near us, and both vrere shot. 

 In the female we found an egg, which was pure white, but with the shell 

 yet soft and thin. On the 6th July, while my son was creeping among 

 some low bushes, to get a shot at some Red-throated Divers, he accidental- 

 ly started a female from her nest. It made much complaint. The nest 

 was placed in the moss, near the foot of a low fir, and was formed exter- 

 nally of beautiful dry green moss, matted in bunches like the coarse hair 

 of some quadruped, internally of very fine dry grass, arranged with great 

 neatness, to the thickness of nearly half an inch, with a full linino- of de- 

 licate fibrous roots of a rich transparent yellow. It was 5 inches in dia- 



