Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 



Swamp Song Sparrow 



CMelospiia georgiana) Finch family 



Called also: SWAMP SPARROW; MARSH SPARROW; RED 

 GRASS-BIRD; SWAMP FINCH 



Length — 5 to 5.8 inches. A little smaller than the English spar- 

 row. 



Male — Forehead black ; crown, which in winter has black stripes, 

 is always bright bay; line over the eye, sides of the neck 

 gray. Back brown, striped with various shades. Wing- 

 edges and tail reddish brown. Mottled gray underneath, 

 inclining to white on the chin. 



Female — Without black forehead and stripes on head. 



Range— HorXh America, from Texas to Labrador. 



Migrations — April. October. A few winter at the north. 



In just such impenetrable retreats as the marsh wrens choose, 

 another wee brown bird may sometimes be seen springing up 

 from among the sedges, singing a few sweet notes as it flies and 

 floats above them, and then suddenly disappearing into the 

 grassy tangle. It is too small, and its breast is not streaked 

 enough to be a song sparrow, neither are their songs alike ; it has 

 not the wren's peculiarities of bill and tail. Its bright-bay crown 

 and sparrowy markings finally identify it. A suggestion of the 

 bird's watery home shows itself in the liquid quality of its simple, 

 sweet note, stronger and sweeter than the chippy's, and repeated 

 many times almost like a trill that seems to trickle from the 

 marsh in a little rivulet of song. The sweetness is apt to become 

 monotonous to all but the bird itself, that takes evident delight in 

 its performance. In the spring, when flocks of swamp sparrows 

 come north, how they enliven the marshes and waste places ! 

 And yet the song, simple as it is, is evidently not uttered alto- 

 gether without dffort, if the tail-spreading and teetering of the 

 body after the manner of the ovenbird, are any indications of 

 exertion. 



Nuttall says of these birds: "They thread their devious way 

 with the same alacrity as the rail, with whom, indeed, they are 

 often associated in neighborhood. In consequence of this perpet- 

 ual brushing through sedge and bushes, their feathers are fre- 

 quently so worn that their tails appear almost like those of rats." 



160 



