sparrows are much less common than their allies, only a few being seen in the 

 large assemblages of different Sparrows in the cotton and corn-fields on the woodland 

 border. All these birds do not venture to go far away from their coverts. If we throw 

 a stick in the air they all fly heedlessly into the nearest thickets, not leaving them until 

 entirely satisfied that all is safe. 



Hawks of various kinds, especially Sparrow and Pigeon Hawks, are very abundant 

 during the winter in the Gulf States, and if the small birds had to personify death, they 

 would certainly represent him as a Hawk, for this is the form in which he most gener- 

 ally appears to them. The Hawk glides noiselessly along on the edge of the woods and 

 alights on a bough near, where he hears the small birds twittering amongst the bushes 

 or in the dense weeds in the adjoining field. Perhaps they see him and are quiet for a 

 little, but he sits motionless as a sphinx, and they soon get over their fear and resume 

 their play and feeding. Then suddenly a dark mass swoops down and rises again with 

 a small bird grasped in his strong talons, gasping out its last breath. Its comrades 

 are terror-struck for a moment and dash madly into the thickets, but soon forget their 

 fear. They chirp to each other; the scattered birds reunite; there is a fluttering and 

 twittering and rearranging of mates, then again songs, feeding, love, joy, jealousy, and 

 bickerings. 



Like the Towhee, the Fox-colored Sparrow prefers the interior of the woods, where 

 it scratches among the old leaves and loose soil for food. As all kinds of insects are 

 abundant in the leaf-mold, and seeds of grasses and weeds are also numerous, our beau- 

 tiful birds do not suffer from want of food. In south-western Missouri they winter 

 sparingly near creeks densely fringed with hazel bushes, briers, and climbers. They 

 also winter in small numbers near St. Louis and in southern Kansas. 



They leave their winter-quarters early, the first disappearing from south-eastern 

 Texas at the beginning of March ; a few days later all have left. At Freistatt, Lawrence 

 Co., Mo., they were quite common about March 17, but a few days later none were 

 to be seen. In southern and central Wisconsin they are usually common -during th« last 

 days, of March and the first week of April. These birds breed north of our northern 

 boundary. Mr. Ernest E. Thompson has recorded them as breeding abundantly at Duck 

 Mountain, Manitoba, and they were also abundantly met with at Fort Simpson, Great 

 Slave Lake, on the Anderson and Swan River, Fort Res®lution, Fort Yukon, Nulato, etc. 

 According to the reports of Kennicott and MacFarlane the nests are found in trees 

 as well as on the ground. A nest, discovered eight feet from the ground, was similar 

 to that of Alice's Thrush. They were nearly all found after the middle of June, and a 

 few as early as June 7. One found on the ground in a tuft of dwarf willows, was 

 composed of coarse grasses, lined with some of a finer quality, a few deer hairs, and a 

 small quantity of fresh and growing moss, intermingled together. Mr. MacFarlane, in 

 speaking of this nest, states that all the nests of the Fox Sparrow he had pre- 

 viously met with had been built in the midst of branches of pine or spruce trees, and 

 had been similar to those of Alice's Thrush, which, in this instance, it did not resemble. 



According to Audubon,- who found the birds breeding in Labrador, the nest 

 is placed mostly on the ground, usually concealed by the drooping branches of 

 evergreens. 



