66 PROCEEDINGS MANCHESTER INSTITUTE 



as do House Sparrows. Or they are found at the wooded bor 

 ders of fields and get back into hiding when one passes along. 

 A few notes of song are often rather huskily given. A little 

 company of several birds has some seasons occupied our garden 

 during its stay, picking among the blackberry canes and the 

 currant bushes, doubtless finding the seeds of some of the fruit 

 which had fallen over-ripe. Several years ago one member of 

 such a company, remaining four or five days, was a partial 

 albino, having a head almost entirely white without stripes. 

 In 1909, up to October i, no individual had been observed. In 

 1910, the earliest bird was seen in Lancaster on September 27, 

 and several were seen on October 3 in Jefferson. But the mi- 

 gration of both of these years seemed small. 



115. Zonotrichia albicoUis. White- throated 

 Sparrow. 



An abundant summer resident in deforested or fire-swept 

 woods in the valley and among the foot-hills, also about clear- 

 ings and wooded roadsides where the timber has been thinned, 

 as well as in the forests of the higher mountains up to the limit 

 of scrub growth and even higher. It is also an abundant fall 

 migrant. Along the turnpike through a burnt forest often year 

 by year thirty to forty male birds in song are recorded upon 

 days in June and Jul5\ Up the Jefferson Notch road through 

 a severely cut forest twenty-five to thirty singing males are 

 usually noted in successive trips during the full-song period. 

 Many sing from the woods bordering the several ponds, and the 

 song is frequently heard along the paths which lead high up 

 the mountain sides, and in the ravines. The song period 

 extends with little abatement about a week into August. I^ater 

 the song is heard only occasionally and with gradually dimin- 

 ished length until only the first two notes may be given. 



In late September and early October flocks of many migrat- 

 ing birds are met at roadsides and in the bush}^ borders of fields. 

 On October 4, 1910, it was estimated that fully a hundred were 



