315 POULTRY AND WILD BIRDS 
back is streaked like that of so many sparrows; their best badge of 
identification is the small black dot on the center of their otherwise 
unmarked grayish white breast. Cap reddish brown, two whitish wing 
bars. Common M. and W.V. 
560 Chipping Sparrow. Length 5} inches. 
Common about our dooryards in trees, bushes, and vines; in these 
it builds its nest, which is a neat basket of grasses, fine twigs, or rootlets, 
thickly lined with long hairs. Is quite 
trustful and readily feeds on the 
crumbs at our doorstep. ' Has a 
streaky, sparrow-like back, chestnut 
brown cap, whitish under parts and 
line under the eye. Call, chip; song 
an unmusical, insect-like trill, sound- 
ing like the noise made by drawing 
a knife across the teeth of a comb, 
and conceived to be a rapid repe- 
tition of its name, Chippy. Its 
range extends westward into the 
eastern part of the Dakotas. Com- 
mon S.R. 
CHIPPING SPARROW 
561 Clay-colored Sparrow. Length 5% inches. 
Easily identified by its resemblance to the Chipping Sparrow. Its 
song is even more insect-like than Chippy’s, that is, the notes are run 
together more closely and rapidly. 
Novices would easily mistake it for 
some unknown insect. Unlike Chippy, 
this bird does not comenearourhomes | 3— B 
but is found in fields and pastures ; 
where there are plenty of bushes, in ; a 
which it builds its nest and from the Ss? 
tops of which the male renders his = 
“songs.” This is a pale-colored spar- 
row with much gray in its plumage, giving it its name. The head has 
irregular black and white stripes with brown at the sides; under parts 
white, soiled with gray. Common in the Dakotas and westward, rarer 
eastward. S.R. 
SLATE-COLORED JUNCO 
