FOX-COLORED SPARROW. 223 
FOX-COLORED SPARROW. —FRINGILLA RUFA.— Fie. 103. 
Rusty Bunting, Arct. Zool. p. 364, No. 231. Ibid. 233.—Ferruginous Finch 
Ibid. 375, No. 251.—Fringilla rufa, Bartram, p. 291.— Peale’s Museum, Blo 
6092. r ; 
a 
ZONOTRICHIA ILIACA.— Swar NSON. 
Fringilla iliac ‘onap.. Synop. p. 112.—Fringilla (zonotrichia) iliaca, North 
RENE ES eee ee ee oe 
Tuis plump and pretty species arrives in Pennsylvania from the 
north about the 20th of October; frequents low, sheltered thickets ; 
associates in little flocks of ten or twelve; and is almost continually 
scraping the ground, and rustling among the fallen leaves. I found 
this bird numerous in November, among the rich, cultivated flats that 
border the River: Connecticut ; and was informed that it leaves those 
places in spring. 1 also found it in the northern parts of the state of 
Vermont. Along the borders of the great reed and cypress swamps 
of Virginia and North and South Carolina, as well as around the rice 
plantations, I observed this bird very frequently. They also inhabit 
Newfoundland.* They are rather of a solitary nature, seldom feed- 
ing in the open fields, but generally under thickets, or among tall, rank 
weeds on the edges of fields. ‘They sometimes associate with the 
Snow Bird, but more generally keep by themselves. Their manners 
very much resemble those of the Red-eyed Bunting ; they are silent, 
tame, and unsuspicious. They have generally no other note while 
here than a re shep ; yet I suspect-they have some song in the 
places where they breed’; for I once heard a single one, a little before 
‘the time they leave us, warble out a few very sweet, low notes. 
The Fox-colored Sparrow is six inches long, and nine and a quarter 
‘broad; the upper part of the head and neck is cinereous, edged with 
rust color; back, handsomely mottled with reddish brown, and cin- 
ereous; wings and tail, bright ferruginous; the primaries, dusky 
within and at the tips, the first and second row of coverts, tipped 
with white; breast and belly, white; the former, as well as the ear- 
feathers, marked with large blotches of bright bay, or reddish brown, 
and the beginning of the belly with little arrow-shaped spots of 
black ; the tail-coverts and tail are a bright fox-color; the legs and 
feet, a dirty brownish white, or clay color, and very strong; the bill is 
strong, dusky above and yellow below; iris of the eye, hazel. The 
chief difference in the female is, that the wings are not of so bright a 
bay, inclining more to a drab ; yet this is scarcely observable, unless 
by a comparison of the two together. They are genertlly very fat, 
live on grass seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel. 
* PENNANT. 
