THE CHIPPING SPARROW 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 



FEW birds are more common throughout the United States 

 than this gentle and harmless little finch. It inhabits 

 the towns, villages, orchards, gardens, borders of fields and 

 prairie grounds. Abundant in the whole of the middle States 

 during spring, summer and autumn, it removes to the southern 

 parts to spend the winter, and there you may meet with it in 

 flocks almost anywhere, even in the open woods. 



So social is it in its character that you see it at that season 

 in company with the Song Sparrow, the White-throated, the 

 Savannah and the Field Sparrows, and almost every other 

 species of the genus. The sandy roads exposed to the sun's 

 rays are daily visited by it. There, or among the tall grasses 

 of our old fields, it searches for food, seeking seeds, small 

 berries and insects of various kinds. Should the weather be 

 cold it enters the barnyard, and even presents itself in the 

 piazza. It reaches Louisiana, the Carolinas and other southern 

 districts in November, and returns about the middle of March 

 to the middle and eastern States where it breeds. 



Early in May the Chipping Sparrow has already formed its 

 nest which it has placed indifferently in the apple or peach 

 tree of the orchard or garden, in any evergreen bush or cedar, 

 high or low, as it may best suit, but never on the ground. It 

 is small and comparatively slender, being formed of a scanty 

 collection of fine dried grass and lined with horse or cow hair. 



The eggs are four or five, of a bright greenish-blue color, 



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