LAND BIRDS. 505 
6, 1906, he found a nest containing three eggs on Grand Island, Munising 
Harbor, placed three feet from the ground in a small balsam. The nest 
is much like that of other sparrows, and the eggs are four or five, bluish 
white or grayish, thickly covered with reddish-brown markings, some- 
times fine, often coarse; they average .83 by .59 inches. Often if not 
usually, two broods are reared in a season, and the birds may be heard 
singing well into August. 
The song is characteristic, and once heard is not likely to be forgotten. 
It is fairly well suggested by the words ‘“sow-wheat, peabody, peabody, 
peabody,” which is the song ascribed to it in New England, based on a 
pretty story to the effect that a farmer named Peabody, doubtful as to the 
proper time for sowing his wheat, was led to sow at once by hearing the song 
of this bird at every corner of the field. Reaping a bountiful harvest that 
year, he waited for the song of the bird in following seasons and his neighbors 
eventually named the bird ‘Peabody’s Bird.” There is very great varia- 
tion in the songs of individual birds and it is hard sometimes to make out 
the above song. A fisherman friend declared that he never lost a fine trout 
in.a Michigan stream that he did not hear a little bird in the neighboring 
swamp call “Oh dear, dear, dear, dear!” The song is peculiarly clear 
and penetrating, and is heard at all hours of the day, and frequently during 
the night. Seaton Thompson states that the White-throat is so well known 
as a night singer that in many parts [of Manitoba] he is called the Nightin- 
gale, and adds that he should not be surprised to find that the bird also 
had an air song. We have no reason to suppose, however, that this bird 
ever sings on the wing. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult (sexes nearly alike): Top of head with a narrow median white stripe between 
two broader black ones; a bright yellow stripe from nostril to above the eye, where it changes 
to white and runs backward toward, but not to, the nape; below this stripe is a narrow 
black one which starts behind the eye and ends on a line with the other five; chin and upper 
throat pure white, usually edged with a narrow dusky line and surrounded by the deep 
ash-gray which covers the sides of the head and neck, lower throat and chest, and in many 
specimens extends along the sides; belly pure white; back warm brown or chestnut, streaked 
with black, except on rump and upper tail-coverts; wings and tail similar to those of the two 
preceding, but browner, especially the secondaries and wing-coverts; bend of the wing 
bright yellow; bill dusky or bluish; iris brown. Immature: At first without yellow on 
head or bend of wing; the head with light brown in place of pure white, and the under parts 
except chin and belly, thickly streaked with dusky; later the streaks disappear more or less 
completely, and a little yellow appears over the eye and on the wing, but the distinctive 
head markings (including the white throat) do not develop until the bird is at least a year 
old, and many breed before attaining them. 
Length 6.30 to 7.65 inches; wing 2.80 to 3.15; tail 3.05 to 3.35. 
230. Tree Sparrow. Spizella monticola monticola (Gmel.). (559) 
Synonyms: Winter sparrow, Winter Chippy, Canada Sparrow.—Fringilla monticola, 
Gmelin, 1789.—Fringilla canadensis, Nutt., Aud.—Fringilla arborea, Wils.—Spizella 
monticola of most authors. 
Similar to the Chipping Sparrow, but larger; crown chestnut, unstriped ; 
breast grayish with a small blackish spot in the center; two white wing bars. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America, west to the Plains, and from the 
Arctic Ocean south in winter to the Carolinas, Kentucky and eastern Kansas. 
Breeds north of the United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. 
Next to the English Sparrow this probably is our most abundant and 
universally distributed winter bird. It comes to us from the north in 
October, usually after the middle of the month, and may be found in vary- 
