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



But the swamp sparrows frequently belie their name, and, 

 especially in the South, live in dry fields, worn-out pasture lands 

 with scrubby, weedy patches in them. They live upon seeds of 

 grasses and berries, but Dr. Abbott has detected their special 

 fondness for fish — not fresh fish particularly, but rather such as 

 have lain in the sun for a few days and become dry as a chip. 



Their nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in a tussock 

 of grass or roots of an upturned tree quite surrounded by water. 

 Four or five soiled white eggs with reddish-brown spots are laid 

 usually twice in a season. 



Tree Sparrow 



(Spi^ella monticola) Finch family 



Called also: CANADA SPARROW ; WINTER CHIPPY; TREE 

 BUNTING ; WINTER CHIP-BIRD ; ARCTIC CHIPPER 



Length — 6 to 6.35 inches. About the same size as the English 

 sparrow. 



Male — Crown of head bright chestnut. Line over the eye, cheeks, 

 throat, and breast gray, the breast with an indistinct black 

 spot on centre. Brown back, the feathers edged with black 

 and buff. Lower back pale grayish brown. Two whitish 

 bars across dusky wings ; tail feathers bordered with grayish 

 white. Underneath whitish. 



Female — Smaller and less distinctly marked. 



Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, and 

 westward to the plains. 



Migrations — October. April. Winter resident. 



A revised and enlarged edition of the friendly little chipping 

 sparrow, that hops to our very doors for crumbs throughout the 

 mild weather, comes out of British America at the beginning of 

 winter to dissipate much of the winter's dreariness by his cheer- 

 ful twitterings. Why he should have been called a tree spar- 

 row is a mystery, unless because he does not frequent trees — a 

 reason with sufficient plausibility to commend the name to sev- 

 eral of the early ornithologists, who not infrequently called a bird 

 precisely what it was not. The tree sparrow actually does not 

 show half the preference for trees that its familiar little counter- 

 part does, but rather keeps to low bushes when not on the 



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