THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 163 



Jersey they are very plentiful, frequently in large flocks, 

 between October 15 and April In, 



Their song, heard generally in February and ' March,, is 

 like that of a Canary, but finer and not so loud; Bur- 

 roughs says that it is " a soft, sweet note, almost running 

 into a warble." 



Tlie food of the birds consists of seeds of weeds and 

 grasses. 



Sparrow^ Vesper, Grass Finch, or Bay-winged, 

 Bunting. — Length, five and three-quarter inches; ex- 

 tent, ten and a half inches. The upper parts are an ashy 

 brown, mottled with deep brown or black; wings, dusky, 

 edged with brown and with white tips to small feathers; 

 outer feather on tail, white on outside edge and tipped 

 with white, the next tipped and edged for half an inch 

 with the same, the rest dusky, edged with pale brown; bill, 

 two-fifths of an inch in length, dark brown above, paler be- 

 low; around the eye is a narrow circle of white; the upper 

 part of the breast is buffy white, thickly streaked with 

 pointed spots of black that pass along the sides; belly, 

 white; legs and feet, flesh-colored. 



The nest is built on the ground of coarse grasses, lined 

 with finer grasses and long hairs. The eggs are either 

 four or five in number, of a bluish white or a grayish 

 white, spotted with brown, and four-fifths by three-fifths 

 of an inch in size. 



The birds breed from Virginia to Nova Scotia, passing 

 the winter in the southern part of New Jersey and south- 

 ward; migrants arrive about the middle of April and re- 

 turn about the first of November. 



The song, generally heard early in the morning and 

 again towards evening, is loud,- clear and ringing, com- 

 pared by Mabel Osgood Wright to chewee-chewee-chewee, 

 tira-lira-lira-lee. 



The food of the bird consists of seeds with some berries 

 and insects. 



