50 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
rump and upper tail-coverts plain grayish-brown; chin and belly white; throat, sides of 
head and neck, and breast, clear ash-gray; sides and flanks buffy brown, without streaks; 
wings with two white bars; outer webs of tertiaries chestnut, tipped with white; tail-feathers 
brownish or dusky, unmarked; bill bright reddish-brown; iris brown. Immature: No 
clear black or white about the head, the forehead and sides of crown being rich brown, 
and the central stripe buff or fawn-color; a similar stripe behind the eye; gray of throat 
and breast duller and browner, the upper parts also much browner than in the adult. 
Length 6.50 to 7.50 inches; wing 3 to 3.30; tail 2.80 to 3.20; culmen .38 to .45. 
229. White-throated Sparrow. Zonotrichia albicollis ((Gmel.). (558) 
Synonyms: White-throat, Peabody Bird, White-throated Crown-Sparrow, Canada 
Bird.—Fringilla albicollis, Gmelin, 1789, Wilson, 1811.—Zonotrichia albicollis, Swains, 
1837, and most writers.—Fringilla pennsylvanica, Aud. 
Spring males have a narrow white stripe through the middle of the crown, 
one on either side, a distinct yellow spot in front of the eye, and a pure 
white chin and throat, sharply marked off from the grayish under parts. 
Females and young birds are duller and dingier, but there are always traces 
of the yellow eye spot, white throat and streaked crown. 
Distribution.—Chiefly eastern North America, west to the Plains, north 
to Labrador and the Fur Countries. Breeds from Montana, northern 
Wyoming, northern Michigan, northern New York and northern New 
England northward, and winters from Massachusetts southward. 
An abundant migrant throughout the state, and a common summer 
resident from the middle of the Lower Peninsula northward. Possibly 
a few individuals remain over winter in the southernmost counties, but this 
is not usual; few White-throats are to be found in the state from the last 
of October to the first of April. They enter the state from the south late 
in April, and the greatest movement takes place during the first half of May. 
Many have been killed every year on Spectacle Reef Lighthouse, some as 
early as April 23, 1889, and others as late as May 15, 1891. Autumn records 
at this lighthouse were September 24, 1889, September 29, 1887, and 
October 7, 1893. During migration they travel in loose flocks of a dozen 
to a hundred, and feed almost anywhere, except in perfectly open fields, 
seeming to prefer the edges of woods, roadsides, gardens and similar places. 
They get almost all their food from the ground, often scratching like a 
Junco or Chewink, and the food consists largely of grass seeds and weed 
seeds, though insects are eaten freely and large numbers are fed to the young. 
We have been unable to fix definitely the southern limit of its nesting 
range, owing to the paucity of observers in many counties. It nests 
abundantly in suitable places north of the Saginaw-Grand Valley and 
sparingly in the northern half of that Valley. Probably a few pairs nest 
considerably south of that region, since it is said to have nested near Grand 
Rapids, and individuals have been known to spend the summer about 
Detroit. We have failed to find it, however, in summer in Ingham county. 
In the valleys of the Au Sable, Muskegon and Manistee it is one of the 
most abundant and characteristic summer birds, and the same is true of 
the entire Upper Peninsula. ; 
The nest is usually placed on the ground, often at the foot of a small 
evergreen, and is generally sunken flush with the surface and well hidden 
by overhanging vegetation. More rarely the nest is placed in a bush or 
small tree, but this appears to be exceptional. Numerous observers in 
the northern part of the state have seen scores of nests on the ground, but 
never one elsewhere. Mr. E. A. Doolittle, however, writes that on July 
