174 FIELD SPARROW. 
FIELD SPARROW.*—FRINGILLA PUSILLA.— Fic. 72. 
Passer agrestis, Bartram, p. 291.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6560. 
EMBERIZA PUSILLA.—Janvinz, Sw. MSS. 
Fringilla pusilla, Bonap. Synop. p. 110. 
Tis is the smallest of all our Sparrows, and, in Pennsylvania, is 
generally migratory. It arrives early in April, frequents dry fields 
covered with long grass, builds a small nest on the ground, generally 
at the foot of a brier; lines it with horse hair; lays six eggs, so 
thickly sprinkled with ferruginous, as to appear altogether of that tint; 
and raises two, and often three, broods in a season. It is more 
frequently found in the middle of fields and orchards than any of the 
other species, which usually lurk along hedge-rows. It has no song, 
but a kind of cheruping, not much different from the chirpings of a 
cricket. Towards fall they assemble in loose flocks, in orchards and 
corn-fields, in search of the seeds of various rank weeds ; and are then 
very numerous. As the weather becomes severe, with deep snow, 
they disappear. In the lower parts of North and South Carolina, I 
found this species in multitudes in the months of January and Febru- 
ary. When disturbed, they take to the bushes, clustering so close 
together, that a dozen may easily be shot atatime. I continued to 
see them equally numerous through the whole lower parts of Georgia; 
from whence, according to Mr. Abbot, they all disappear early in the 
spring: 
eee of our birds have been more imperfectly described than that 
family of the Finch tribe usually called Sparrows. They have been 
considered as too insignificant for particular notice, yet they possess 
distinct characters, and some of them peculiarities well worthy of 
notice. They are innocent in their habits, subsisting chiefly on the 
small seeds of wild plants, and seldom injuring the property of the 
farmer. Inthe dreary season of winter, some of them enliven the 
prospect by hopping familiarly about our doors, humble pensioners on 
the sweepings of the threshold. 
The present species has never before, to my knowledge, been 
figured. It is five inches and a quarter long, and eight inches btoad; 
bill and legs, a reddish cinnamon color; upper part of the head, deep 
chestnut, divided by a slight streak of drab, widening as it goes back; 
cheeks, line over the eye, breast, and sides under the wings, a brownish 
clay color, lightest on the chin, and darkest on the ear-feathers; a 
* The American Bunting Finches are most puzzling, the forms being constantly 
intermediate, and never assuming the true type. Mr. Swainson has also felt this, 
and has been obliged to form a new genus, to contain one portion nearly inadmissi- 
ble to any of the others. The present species will rank as allied nearest to the 
Reed Bunting of Europe, /. schceniculus. Another, mentioned neither by Wilson 
nor Bonaparte, has been added by the over-land expedition, — Emberiza pallida, 
Clay-colored Bunting, Sw. and Richard. North. Zool. It approaches nearest to 
E. socialig, but differs in wanting the bright rufous crown, and having the ear- 
feathers brown, margined above and below with a dark edge.— Ep. 
