380 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES— OSCINES. 



cheeks ; sides of head and neck rtherwise ashy-gray. Below, impurely whitish, tinged with 

 ashy anteriorly, washed with pale brownish posteriorly, the middle of the breast with an obscure 

 dusky blotch. Middle of back boldly streaked with black, bay, and flaxen ; middle and greater 

 wing-coverts black, edged with bay and tipped with white, forming two conspicuous cross-bars ; 

 inner secondaries similarly variegated ; other quiUs and tail-feathers plain dusky, vrith pale or 

 whitish edges. Kemarkably constant in coloration ; sexes indistinguishable, and young very 

 similar, the chief variation being in the veiling of the cap with gray. There is a very early 

 streaky stage, however, as in other species. A handsome sparrow, the largest of the genus. 

 Length 5.80-6.20, usually 6.00; extent 8.75-9.7S, usually 9.25; wing and tail 2.75-3.10. 

 Abundant in the U. S. in winter, flocking in shrubbery ; breeds in mountainous and boreal 

 regions, even to the Arctic coast. Inirequent or casual west of the Kooky Mts. Nest in low 

 bushes or on the ground, loosely constructed of bark-strips, weeds, and grasses, warmly 

 lined with feathers. Eggs 4-6 or even 7, pale green, minutely and regularly sprinkled with 

 reddish-brown spots. 

 369. S. domes'tica. (Lat. domestica, domestic. Figs. 237, 238.) CnrppiNG Spakrow. Chip- 

 BiED OR Chippy. Hair-bird. Adult : Bill black ; feet pale ; crown chestnut ; extreme fore- 

 head black, usually divided by a pale line ; a grayish-white superciliary line ; below this a 



blackish stripe through eye and over auriculars ; 

 lores dusky. Below, a variable shade of pale ash, 

 nearly uniform and entirely unmarked ; back 

 streaked with black, dull bay and grayish-brown ; 

 inner secondaries and wing-coverts similarly vari- 

 egated, the tips of the greater and median coverts 

 forming whitish bars; rump ashy, with slight 

 blackish streaks or none; primaries and tail- 

 feathers dusky, with paler edges. Smaller: 

 length 5.00-5.50; extent 8.00-9.00; wing 2.66- 

 2.75 ; tail less, about 2.50. Sexes alike, but very 

 young birds quite different ; the crown being 

 streaked like the back, the breast and sides 

 thickly streaked with dusky, the biU pale brown, 

 and the head lacking definite black. In this 

 stage, which, however, is of brief duration, it resembles some other species, but may be known 

 by a certain ashiness the others lack, and from the small sparrows that are streaked below 

 when adult, by its generic characters. North America, extremely abundant, and the most 

 familiar species about houses, in gardens, and elsewhere, nesting in shrubbery; nest of fine 

 diied grass, lined with hair; eggs 4-5, bluish, speckled sparsely and chiefly about the larger 

 end with blackish-brown, with purplish sheU-markings ; size about 0.70 X 0.55. 

 a70. 8. d. arizo'nse. (Lat. of Arizona.) Arizona Chipping Sparrow. Like an immature S. 

 domestica. Paler than this species, the ashiness in great measure brown; crown grayish-brown 

 streaked with dusky like the back, and showing evident traces of rich chestnut, but never 

 becoming whoUy chestnut ; black firontlet lacking or obscure, and no definite ashy superciliary 

 line, the sides of the crown merely lighter brown ; biU brown above, pale below. Arizona, and 

 other portions of the Southern Rocky Mt. region. A curious form, as it were an arrested stage 

 of domestica. Some specimens, with the least chestnut on the head, look remarkably like 

 hreweri, but this last is evidently smaller, without chestnut on the head, and otherwise different. 

 271. 8. agres'tls. (Lat. agresUs, pertaining to fields ; ager, a field.) Field Sparrow. Bill pale 

 reddish ; feet very pale ; crown duU chestnut ; auriculars and postocular stripe the same ; no 

 decided black or whitish about head. Below, white, unmarked, but much washed with pale 

 brown on breast and sides ; sides of head and neck with some vague brown markings ; all the 



Fig. 238. — Chipping-Sparrow, reduced 

 pard del. Nichols sc. ) 



(Shep- 



