SPARROWS 



(559) Spizella monticola mon= 



ticola (Gmel.) (Gr., a lifJe finch; Lat., 

 a mountain inhabitant). 



TREE SPARROW, ^rfs— Plu- 

 mage as shown; crown chestnut-brown 

 but with no black markings of any 

 kind; back reddish-brown, streaked 

 with dusky; two wing bars formed 

 by the white tips of tlie greater and 

 middle coverts; below whitish, shad- 

 ing to ashy on the sides; a brownish 

 spot in the middle of the breast. Im. 

 — Similar, but crown mixed with 

 grayish. L., 6.25; W., 3.00; T., 2.80. 

 N esl — Of grasses, rootlets and hair; 

 on the ground or slightly above ; 

 four or five pale greenish-blue eggs, 

 specked with brown, .80 x .60. 



Range — Breeds from Ungava and 

 Mackenzie south to Quebec and New- 

 foundland. Winters from the Cana- 

 dian border to S. Car. and Ark. 



brush. If we disturb them at their labors they wiU hop 

 up where they can watch us and protest with a musical 

 metallic "chink." If we approach closer than they hke, 

 they will troop off through the brush, bidding you farewell 

 with a penetrating "tseep. " 



In our Northern States, particularly in rather mountain- 

 ous portions, many of these delightful creatures pass the 

 summer with us. One built a cozy nest of grass and weeds 

 in a Massachusetts city park where hundreds of people 

 were within a few feet every day; it was in a little hollow 

 under a small bush. 



TREE SPARROWS regularly visit us in the northern 

 half of the United States every winter, coming south as soon 

 as the snows cover the weeds of their home country in 

 northern Canada, thereby preventing them from obtaining 

 a sufficient supply of the seeds that they require. 



At first glance many people mistake them for Chipping 

 Sparrows, but they wear an unmistakable badge of recog- 



31S 



