320 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



west of Hamilton. It was towards the close of a warm day in the 

 early part of July, and the last rays of the sun were brightening 

 the tops of the tamaracks, while, underneath, the still waters of the 

 pond, enclosed in a deep natural basin, were shrouded in gloom. 

 There was little to break the silence, till a bird, mounting to the 

 topmost twig of one of the trees, his bill pointing upward, his tail 

 hanging limp and motionless, and his whole attitude indicating lan- 

 guor and weariness, drawled out the plaintive, familiar " Old Tom 

 Peabody, Peabody." This song harmonized so perfectly with the 

 surroundings that I felt at once he was at home. The hour, the 

 attitude, and above all the feeling of weariness expressed in the 

 plaintive notes of the bird, reminded me strongly at the time of the 

 Yellow-hammer of Britain. 



Allan Brooks has also found this species breeding at Milton, a 

 few miles north of the west end of Lake Ontario, but such cases are 

 by no means common in this district. In the fall they are again 

 seen in limited numbers, but at that season the plumage of the male 

 has lost much of its brightness, and young and old, male and female, 

 resemble each other in appearance. 



Their food, which ; consists chiefly of seeds, is obtained on or 

 near the ground. During October they are seen travelling from 

 one brush pile to another, and by the end of that month they are 

 gone for the season. 



Genus SPIZELLA Bonaparte. 

 SPIZELLA MONTICOLA (Gmel.). 



230. Tree Sparrow. (559) 



Bill, black above, yellow below ; legs, brown ; toes, black ; no black on 

 forehead ; crown, chestnut (in winter specimens the feathers usually skirted 

 with gray) bordered by a grayish-white superciliary and loral line, and some 

 vague chestnut marks on sides of head ; below, impurely whitish, tinged 

 with ashy anteriorly, washed with pale brownish posteriorly ; the middle of 

 the breast with an obscure dnsky blotch ; middle of back boldly streaked 

 with black, bay and flaxen ; middle and lesser wing coverts, black, edged 

 with bay and tipped with white, forming two conspicuous cross bars ; inner 

 secondaries similarly variegated ; other quills and tail feathers, dusky, with 

 pale edges. Length, 6 ; wing and tail, nearly 3. 



Hab. — Eastern North America, westward to the Plains, and from the 



