224 LAND-BIRDS. 



bushes), until one can see them looking up with an anxious, 

 appealing expression, which is very charming. Sometimes, 

 however, almost always if the nest is on the ground, they take 

 to flight, when one intrudes too boldly, though they at once 

 return to the immediate neighborhood, and express their feel- 

 ings by the utterance of repeated chips. Wilson speaks of 

 their chirruping, by which he probably refers to their occa- 

 sional twitters; but he says that they have no song. The 

 Field Sparrows do sing, however, and very sweetly, most often 

 in the early morning and towards evening. Their notes are 

 sweet and very clear, and have been likened to the tinkling 

 of a bell. They open with a few exquisitely modulated 

 whistles, each higher and a very little louder than the preced- 

 ing, and close with a sweet trill. But they are often varied ; 

 and, says Mr. Allen, " the songs of the males " in Florida 

 " were so different from those of the northern bird that the 

 species was almost unrecognizable by me from its notes." 

 The little Field Sparrows, however, are always charming 

 singers, and no sounds are more refreshing, on a warm after- 

 noon of early summer, than those which they produce. 



XV. ZONOTRICHIA. 



A. ALBicoLLis. White-throated Sparrow. " Pedbody- 

 bird." '■'■ White-throat." A common migrant through Mas- 

 sachusetts, many breeding in northern New England.* 



a. 6-7 inches long. Crown, to just below the eyes, 

 black, with a median line and superciliary line, white, the 

 latter, however, bright yellow from the bill to the eye. Sides 

 of the head, ash, or warm gray ; breast and sides, lighter. 

 Throat and belly, white (the latter being separated from the 

 ash of the head by a narrow black maxillary line). Back, 

 reddish brown, black - streaked, and feathers pale -edged. 



* The White-throated Sparrow ly pass the winter in sheltered swamps 



breeds abundantly throughout most and thickets near the coast, and the 



of northern New England, very com- species has also been reported as win- 



monly on Mount Graylock, sparingly tering- in Connecticut, but at most local- 



in the northern part of Worcester ities in southern New England it is 



County, Massachusetts, and occasion- known only as a spring and autumn 



ally in eastern Massachusetts. In the migrant. — W. B. 

 last-named region a few birds regular- 



