The eggs, four or five in number, are bluish-green, and are sparingly spotted about 

 the larger end with dark brown and purple markings. They measure .66X.48. 



The young are fed with small insects, and when they are about six days old the 

 parents carry larger insects, especially green worms, to the nest. When their haunts 

 are infested with the destructive canker worms, they will feed the young with this pest 

 in incredible numbers. They are devoted parents and express great solicitude w^henever 

 their nests are approached and meddled with. 



"The tameness and sociability of this bird," writes Dr. T. M. Brewer, "surpass 

 that of any of the birds I have ever met with in New England, and ai-e only equalled 

 by similar traits manifested by the Snowbird {Junco hyemalis) in Pictou. Those, that 

 live about our dwellings in rural situations, and have been treated kindly, visit our 

 door-steps, and even enter the houses with the greatest familiarity and trust. They will 

 learn to distinguish their friends, alight at their feet, call for their accustomed food, and 

 pick it up when thrown to them, without the slightest signs of fear. One pair which, 

 summer after summer, had built their nest in a fir tree near my door, became so accus- 

 tomed to be fed that they would clamor for their food if they were any morning for- 

 gotten. One of these birds, the female, from coming down to be fed with crumbs, soon 

 learned to take them on a flat branch of the fir near her nest, and at last to feed from 

 my hand, and afterwards from that of other members of the family. Her mate, all the 

 while, was comparatively' shy and distrustful, and could not be induced to receive his 

 food from us or to eat in our presence." 



The flight of the Chippy is in no way peculiar; it is never long and not as quick 

 and graceful as those of the Field Sparrow. The birds pick up their food mostly from the 

 ground, though they capture eater-pillars, moths, and beetles often on the foliage and 

 the flowers of trees and shrubs. They rarely perch at any great height from the ground, 

 and I cannot recall an instance of having seen them in tall trees. Wherever they occur 

 the low shrubbery is their abode. Often we may see them perching upon fences, wash- 

 lines, posts, or farming implements. They are not uncommon in our large cities; in 

 Milwaukee and Chicago I have found them common summer sojourners in the parks 

 and even in the small gardens of the resident parts. Owing to the coal dust and soot 

 the plumage of these city birds looks much darker than that of the Chippies living in a 

 purer air. In populated parts of the country these birds are much more abundant than 

 in the primitive tracts. "They are consequently among the several species who have to 

 contend with the English Sparrows in the ceaseless struggle for existence that is the 

 order of Nature for all creatures. During the pairing and nesting periods they are pretty 

 equally dispersed in their usual haunts, showing no gregarious disposition; but in the 

 fall, preceding or during the migration, flocks of considerable size nlake up by the road- 

 side and in the pasture land. They have at times a song quite different from the sharp, 

 monotonous trill so characteristic of the spring time, and of much more musical quality ; 

 and they are among the several birds of our country which occasionally wake up in the 

 middle of the night, to twitter a tremulous expression of their happiness, and then sink 

 quietly to sleep again." (Stearns.) 



The ordinary note of the Hairbird is a sharp chip, like that of the Tree Sparrow, 

 and its song consists of quite a series of chips, with scarcely any vai'iation. These notes 



