334 BIRDS — FEIJSIGILLID^. 



Mr. Read says "a few remain and spend the entire year with us; have 

 raised them from the nest." With the exception that they have been 

 found breeding at Calais, Maine, by Mr. Boardman, and the statement of 

 Dr. Coues, that it breeds in mountains within our limits, this is the only 

 record of its breeding in the United States. 



This is one of the most hardy of all the Sparrow -i. With us they fre- 

 quent willow thickets, shrubbery, and high weeds along the banks of 

 streams, and weedy spots on the edges of wojds. Not uncommonly they 

 are found in gardens of cities. Tbey are gregarious, sometimes feeding 

 in flocks of a hundred. They are scarcely less terrestrial than the Snow 

 Sparrow, but take their common name from the habit they have of flying 

 from thickets into trees when disturbed. Ttieir common note is a soft 

 chirp, and when feeding they frequently utter an exceeding high and 

 clear short twitter, like the tinkling of a tioy bell. Brfore leaving us 

 the males sing a rather low but exceeding sweet song. 



The Tree Sparrow nests on the ground or on low bushes; the nest is 

 built of fibres of bark and grass, and lined with feathers. The eggs are 

 light-green, rather sparsely marked with reddish-brown, and measure 

 .85 by .65. 



Spizella 80C1ALI8 (Wils.) Bp. 



Cbipping feSparrOAV. 



Frwgilla socialis, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 164. — Rkad, Pioo. Phila. Acad. 



Nat. Sol, vi, 1853, 39.'). 

 Spisella socialis, Whbaton, Ohio Agric, Rep. for 18()0, 36G ; Repiint, 1861, 8; Food of 



Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Kep. for 1874, 566; Kepriut, la75, 6 — Langdon, Cat. Birds 

 . of CiQ., 1877, 8: Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soo. Nat. Hisr., i, 1879, 175; Reprint, 9. 

 Chipping Sparrow, Ballou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 1 6. 



Fringilla socialis, Wilson, Am. Orn., ii, 1810, lii7. 

 Spizella socialis, Bonaparte, List, 1838, 33. 



Adult : bill black; feet pale ; crown ctiestnut, extreme forehead blaik, a grayish-white 

 superciliary lice, below this a blackish stripe through eye and orer auiioulars. Below, 

 a variable shade of pale asb, nearly uiiitorm and entirely unmarked; back streaked 

 with black, dull bay and grayish-brown; inner secondaries and wlugcoverts similarly 

 variegated, the tips of the greater and lesser coverts lormirg whitish bars ; rump ashy, 

 with blight blackish streaks ; primaries and tail dusky, with paler edges. Young, with 

 crown streaked like the back, the breast and sides thickly streaked with dusky, the bDI 

 pale brown, and the head lacking definite black. I-ength, 5-^i; wing, about 2J; tail 

 rather less. 



Habitat, Temperate North America from Atlantic to Paoiiic. 



Abundant summer resident from April to November. Breeds abund- 

 antly. Perhaps no bird is more familiar or better known. It rather 

 seeks than shuns the society of man, and is especially abundant in cities 



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