3IO LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



early as June 4, which was built of grass and lined 

 with a few feathers and deer's hair. It was placed 

 under a fallen tree. Another was found at Great 

 Bear's Lake, which was lined jvith the setce of 

 Bryum uliginosum. Mr. Kennicott found it breed- 

 ing on the southern shores of Slave Lake, and 

 also on English river. Dr. Brewer has met with 

 its nests repeatedly among the White Mountains, 

 placed invariably upon the ground, sheltered by 

 grasses, at the foot of a bush or tree, or under a 

 fallen log in a thicket. There the species was 

 exceedingly shy and distrustful, and never found 

 nesting in cultivated fields or by the side of human 

 dwellings. At Halifax they were discovered 

 breeding in gardens close to houses, with the ap- 

 parent familiarity of the Song Sparrow. 



The nest of this species is invariably placed 

 upon the ground, but in various places; on a 

 hillside at the. base of a tree, in a swampy woods 

 within low underbrush, by the margin of a pond, 

 or in a hollow stump. It is large, deep, and capa- 

 cious, and consists of a basis of coarse grasses and 

 mosses with finer stems above, and is lined with 

 •soft grasses, fine plant-rootlets, feathers, and hair. 



These Sparrows winter in South Carolina and 

 Louisiana, and constitute groups of fifties which 

 live together in perfect harmony and subsist upon 

 divers seeds. 



The eggs are from four to seven in number, 

 greenish-white, and are marked with ferruginous 

 brown spots over the entire surface, generally so 



