162 SWAMP SPARROW. 



beauty of this song. It resembles somewhat the melody of the Field Sparrow, though it 

 is louder and more varied. When disturbed it dives down among the grass and herbs to 

 repose out of sight. On the ground its movements are as quick, as silent, and secret as 

 those of a mouse, and once lost out of sight it is only with great difficulty to be 

 found. But if we remain quiet it soon mounts another low shrub and sings again. Its 

 loud, sweet, and somewhat plaintive notes are continued till late in the morning, and 

 after sunset in the evening. The common call-note sounds like chuck, and when excited 

 or when its nest is approached it utters incessantly sharp notes sounding like 

 cbck-chck-chck, 



"Were it not for its abundance," says Mr. Winfred A. Steams, "this timid and 

 secretive inhabitant of the thickest shrubbery would be little known, so closely does it 

 hug the dense coverts which it instinctively chooses as a screen from the danger of 

 notoriety. It seldom ventures so far from its retreat that a hurried flight of a few 

 seconds will not enable it to regain the thicket, and no oftener climbs the bushes to 

 any considerable height from the ground. Moreover, such cover as the bird prefers is 

 that growing in the greatest profusion in swampy or other wet places, access to which 

 is doubly diflSicult from the treacherous yielding of the ground and the sturdy resistence 

 of the mantling vegetation. If, however, we overcome such obstacles, and penetrate 

 such recesses, we may. be pretty sure to see the Swamp Sparrow in the comparatively 

 free spaces beneath the woven canopy of foliage, fluttering in the shade, threading shyly 

 among the briers, running nimbly over the ground, or even wading about in tiny pools." 



This is a true picture of the Swamp Sparrow's breeding grounds. In such places 

 1 have found many nests during my boyhood. They were most generally built in a 

 tussock of grass, sometimes in a dense goose-berry bush, and then again under the shade 

 of a clump of ferns or huckle-berry bushes. The structure, which is well built, consists of 

 coarse grasses and is lined with grasses and sometimes a few hair. Two broods are 

 annually raised. The first set, usually consisting of five eggs, is found by the 20th of 

 May, and a second set, usually containing four eggs, is found by the middle or end of 

 June. The ground-color of the eggs is bluish-green or bluish-white, densely spotted, 

 blotched, and clouded with dark and chestnut-brown. The eggs closely resemble those 

 of the Song Sparrow, but the dense clouding usually suffices to distinguish them. 



The food is largely collected from the ground. It consists of small eater-pillars, 

 beetles, worms, and such insects which usually are found near water. During fall and 

 winter the seeds of grasses and weeds foi-m a large part of its diet. 



NAMES: Swamp Sparrow, Swamp Soiig Sparrow, Spotted Swamp Sparrow. — Suraplsperling (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Fringilla georgina Lath. (1790). MELOSPIZA GEORGINA Ridgw. (1885). Frin- 

 gilla palustris Wils. (1811). Melospiza palustris Baird (1858). 



DESCRIPTION: Sexes, alike. "Middle of crown, uniform chestnut; forehead, black; superciliary streak, 

 sides of head and back, and sides of neck, ash. A brown stripe behind the eye. Back with broad 

 streaks of black, which are edged with rusty-yellow. Beneath, whitish, tinged with ashy anteriorly, 

 especially across the breast, and washed with yellowish-brown on the sides. A few obsolete streaks 

 across the breast, which become distinct on its sides. Wings and tail, strongly tinged with rufous; 

 the tertials, black, the rufous edging changing abruptly to white towards the end. 



"Length, 5.75 inches; wing, 2.40. 



'''Female with the crown scarcely reddish, streaked with black, and divided by a light line." (Ridgw.) 



