222 ye WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. 
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW.—FRIN GILLA ALBICOL 
LIS. — Fie. 101. 
Fringilla fusca, Bartram, p. 291. — Lath. ii. 272. — Edwards, 304.— Arct. Zool, 
p. 373, No. 248. — Peale’s Museum, No. 6486. 
’  ZONOTRI CHIA PENNSYL VANICA, — Swarnson, 
Fringilla Pennsylvanica, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 445. — Bonap. Synop. p. 108. — 
The White-Throated Sparrow, Aud. pl. 8, male and female; aes, Biog. i. 
p. 42.— North. Zool. ii. p. 256. 
.Turs is. the largest as well as handsomest of all our Sparrows. It 
winters with the preceding species and several others in most of the 
states south of New England. From Connecticut to Savannah 1 
found these birds numerous, particularly in the neighborhood of the 
Roanoke River, and among the rice plantations. In summer they re- 
tire to the higher inland parts of the country, and also farther north, 
to breed. According to Pennant, they are also found at that season 
in Newfoundland. During their residence here in winter, they col- 
lect together in flocks, always preferring the borders of swampy 
thickets, creeks, and mill-ponds, skirted with alder bushes and long, 
rank weeds, the seeds of which form their principal food. Early in 
spring, a little before they leave us, they have a few remarkably sweet 
and clear notes, generally in the morning a little after sunrise. About . 
the 20th of April they disappear, and we see no more of them till the 
beginning or second week of October, when they again return ; part 
to pass the winter with us, and part on their route farther south. 
The length of the White-throated Sparrow is six inches and a half, 
breadth, nine inches ; the upper part of the back and the lesser wing- 
coverts are beautifully variegated with black, bay, ash, and light 
brown ; a stripe of white passes from the base of the upper mandible 
to the hind head ; this is bordered on each side with a stripe of black; 
below this again is another of white passing over each eye, and deep- 
ening into orange yellow between that and the nostril; this is again 
bordered by a stripe of black proceeding from the hind part of 
the eye; breast, ash; chin, belly, and vent, white; tail, somewhat 
wedged; legs, flesh colored; bill, a bluish horn color; eye, hazel. 
In the female, the white stripe on the crown isa light drab; the 
breast not so dark ; the chin less pure; and the line of yellow before 
the eye scarcely half as long as in the male. All the parts that are 
white in the male are ir the female of a light drab color. 
