FIUNCHLLIDM: FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPABBOWS, ETC. 



371 



and under parts, fadiug to whitish on throat and belly; the sides, flanks, and crissuin marked 

 with brown, and obsoletely streaked with darker brown. Back and rump brown, rather darlcer 

 than sides of body, boldly variegated with black central streaks of the feathers and their pale 

 brown or grayish edges. Wings so strongly edged with bright bay as to appear almost uni- 

 formly brownish-red when closed; but inner secondaries and greater coverts showing some 

 black and whitish besides the bay. Tail likewise strongly edged with bay, and usually showing 

 sharp black shaft lines. Thus well marked by the emphasis of black, bay, and ash. Length 

 5.40-5.80, usually 5.60 ; extent 7-50-8.00 ; wing and tail, each, 2.20-2.40. Varies little except 

 as above noted, and in extent and intensity of the ash on fore and under parts. In birds of the 

 first autumn, the crown may be quite blackish, with little chestnut and an ashy median stripe. 

 Very young birds may bo conspicuous- 

 ly streaked below, and a few streaks 

 nniy persist on the sides of the breast. 

 North Amer. at large, W. to Utah, N. 

 to Hudson's Bay and Labrador, but 

 chiefly Eastern U. S. and Canada; 

 breeding at least frtim New England 

 northward, wintering entirely in the 

 Southern States. Abundant, but a 

 timid recluse of shrubbery, swamp, 

 and brake, and seldom seen by the jpro- 

 famim vulgus; a good musician, like 

 all the genus. Nesting and eggs like 

 those of the song sparrow. 

 344. M. fascia'ta. (Lat. fasciata, bundled 

 together ; fascis, a bundle of rods ; fas- 

 cia, a band; whence fasciata, banded, 

 striped ; the allusion not to the body- 

 streaks, but to the obsolete bands on 

 the tail-feathers. Pig. 234.) Song 

 Sparrow. Silver-tongue. Below, 

 white, slightly shaded with brownish on the flanks and crissum ; with numerous black-centred, 

 brown-edged streaks across breast and along sides, usually forming a pectoral blotch and 

 coalescing into maxillary stripes bounding the white throat ; crown dull bay, with fine black 

 streaks, divided in the middle and bounded on either side by ashy-whitish lines ; vague brown 

 or dusky and whitish markings on the sides of the head ; a brown post-ocular stripe over the 

 gray auriculars, and another, not so well defined, from angle of mouth below the auriculars ; 

 the interscapular streaks black, with bay and ashy- white edgings; rump and cervix grayish- 

 brown, with merely a few bay marks ; wings with dull bay edgings, the coverts and inner quills 

 marked hke the interscapulars ; tail plain brown, with darker shaft lines, on the middle featheis 

 at least, and often with obsolete transverse wavy markings. Very constant in plumage, the 

 chief differences being in the sharpness and breadth of the markings, due. in part to the wear of 

 the feathers. In worn midsummer plumage, the streaking is very sharp, narrow, and black, 

 from wearing of the rufous and whitish, especially observable below where the streaks contrast 

 with white, and giving the impression of lieavier streaking than in faU and winter, when, in 

 fresher feather, the markings are softer and more suffuse. The aggregation of spots into a 

 blotch on the middle of the breast is usual. Bill dark brown, paler below ; feet pale brown. 

 Length 5.90-6.50, usually 6.30; extent 8.25-9.25, usually 8.50-9.00; wing 2.40-2.75, usually 

 about 2.60 ; tail nearer 3.00. 9 averaging near the lesser dimensions, but the species re- 

 markably constant iu size, form, and coloring. Eastern U. S. and Canada, breeding through- 



FlG. 233. 

 Nicbols sc.) 



-Swamp Song Sparrow, reduced, (Shejipard del. 



