SONG SPARROW 157 



band across the narrow streaking of the breast. When one 

 has become familiar with the species, other diiferences are 

 apparent ; the bird is smaller than the Song Sparrow, trim- 

 mer, more elegant. Its tail is shorter, and the color of its 

 back and the side of its head is olive-gray rather than red- 

 dish-brown. It is more apt than the other sparrows to raise 

 its crest-feathers slightly when alarmed. (See "Bird-Lore," 

 vol. ii. p. 109.) 



Song Sparrow. Melospisa cinerea melodia 

 6.30 



Ad. — Upper parts brown, the back streaked with darker 

 brown ; top of head reddish-brown, with streaks of gray through 

 centre and over each eye ; breast and sides streaked with reddish- 

 brown, the streaks generally coalescing to form a large spot in the 

 centre of the breast ; two other large spots at the sides of the 

 throat ; tail rather long. 



Nest, placed either in grass or sedge on the ground, or in a low 

 bush. Eggs, heavily spotted with reddish-brown. 



The Song Sparrow is a common permanent resident in 

 the lower Hudson Valley and in southern Connecticut and 

 Rhode Island ; it winters not 

 uncommonly in the edges of 

 marshes or in piles of brush 

 along the Massachusetts coast. 

 In the rest of New York and 

 New England the Song Sparrow 

 is an abundant summer resident, 

 arriving early in March and re- 

 maining through October. Where 



the bird winters, its song may 



. , , -I 1 1 • Fig- 39- Song Sparrow 



be heard on mild days, even in 



the winter months, and especially during the latter part of 



February, but in general its song is one of the signs of 



spring. 



From about the middle of July, through the late summer 



