BIRDS OF NEW YORK 317 



and insects, but flies up to his low perch, usually 7 to 15 feet from the 

 ground, utters his cherry song, then flies to the ground again to resume 

 his occupation, for he seems never to be without something to do. He is 

 rarely seen perched motionless preening himself, but usually busily hunt- 

 ing about or flying from bush to bush and singing. 



The nest of the Song sparrow is placed upon the ground under a tussock 

 of grass or on a sloping bank, composed of the stalks of grasses, rootlets, 

 leaves and strips of bark, lined with finer grasses and long hairs. The 

 eggs are usually 4 or 5 in number, bluish white or grayish white in ground 

 color, rather profusely speckled and spotted with rufous brown or purplish 

 brown and obscure lilac shell markings, sometimes uniformly over the 

 whole surface, at other times tending to form a wreath near the larger 

 end. They average about .80 by .60 inches in dimensions. The first 

 sets of eggs are found in this State from the 25th of April to the I5tb of 

 May; eggs of the second brood are usually found about the 20th of June; 

 while a third nesting is often observed in July and August, sometimes 

 as late as the 25th of the latter month. The second and third nests are 

 frequently built in thick bushes or tall tussocks of grass, sometimes in 

 bushes as high as 6 or 8 feet, and Mr Ralph Paddock of Rochester has 

 a photograph of a Song sparrow's nest in a hollow apple tree about 5 feet 

 from the ground. This bird, however, is the common " ground bird " 

 or " brown ground bird " of the school boy, and 99 per cent of their nests 

 are placed upon the ground, but often so securely hidden that they would 

 never be found if the old bird were not startled from the nest. The Cow- 

 bird, however, finds them with perfect ease and often deposits her eggs 

 in the Song sparrow's nest; but I know of no other native species which 

 can afford so well to rear the young of this interloper as the Song sparrow, 

 for it is one of our most abundant birds, and if its first brood fails on account 

 of the parasitic intruder the mother will, nevertheless, raise one or more 

 later broods of her own. 



