132 CLAY-COLORED SPARROW. 



Cardinals and Mockingbirds, and Carolina Wrens and Bluebirds made me satisfied with 

 my situation, and in my happiness I wished that it might be forever so. 



The Field Sparrow secures its food mostly on the ground. In fall and winter it 

 subsists mostly on the seeds of weeds and grasses, and in spring and summer on insects, 

 their eggs, and larvae. Grasshoppers, but especially small eater-pillars, are greatly 

 relished. The young are fed entirely with insects, as is the case with all the small birds. 

 The flight is short, low, and undulating. In their motions they are much quicker, being 

 more nervous than the Chipping Sparrow. For cage-life they are well adapted, as they 

 are easy to keep and their wants readily satisfied. With other smaller birds of similar 

 character they may be safely kept together. Millet and grass seed, "ant's eggs," ^ock- 

 ingbird-fbod, etc., form their diet in cage-life. They are also very diligent songsters 

 in confinement. 



NAMES: Field Sparrow, Wood Sparrow, Bush Sparrow, "Feo-Feo," Field Chippy, Red-billed Chippy. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Fringilla pusilla Wils. (1810). SPIZELLA PUSILLA Bonap. (1838). Emberiza 

 pusilla Aud. (1830). Spinites pusillus Cab. (1851). Spizella agrestis Coues. 



DESCRIPTION: "Bill, browtiish-red. Crown, continnous rufous, with a faint indication of an ashy central 

 stripe, and ashy nuchal collar. Back, somewhat similar, with shaft-streaks of blackish. Sides of head 

 and neck (including superciliary stripe), ashy. Ear-coverts, rufous. Beneath, white, tinged with yel- 

 lowish anteriorly, the sides of the breast with a rufous patch. Tail-feathers and quills faintly edged 

 with white. Two whitish bands across the ear-coverts. Autumnal specimens more rufous." (Ridgw.) 

 Length, 5.75 inches; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.60 inches. 



CLAY-COLORED SPARROW 



Spizella pallida Bonaparte. 



^HIS handsome little species is found quite abundant throughout the country 

 bordering on the upper Missouri. It inhabits with partictdar partiality the small 

 valleys found here and there among the numerous ravines running from the interior, 

 and between such hills I have already mentioned. Its usual demeanor resembles much 

 that of the Chipping Bunting, and, like it, it spends much of its time in singing its 

 monotonous ditties, while its mate is engaged in the pleasing task of incubation. When 

 approached, it will dive and conceal itself either amid the low bushes around, or will 

 seek a large cluster of wild roses, so abundant in that section of country, and the 

 fragrance of which will reach the olfactory nerve of the traveler or gunner for many paces. 

 "The nest of the Shattuck Bunting is usually placed on a small horizontal branch, 

 seven or eight feet from the ground ; and I believe it is occasionally placed in the broken 

 and hollow branches of trees. The eggs, four or five in number, are blue, spotted with 

 reddish-brown toward the large end, and placed in a nest so slightly formed of slender 

 grasses, circularly lined with horse or cattle hair, as to resemble as much as possible the 

 nest of the species to which it is allied." (Audubon.) 



