SPARROWS 



(561) Spizella pallida 



{Swains.) (Lat., pale). 



CLAY - COLORED SPARROW. 

 Plumage as shown by the bird on the 

 left; crown light brown, streaked with 

 black and with a pale median line; 

 hind neck plain gray. L., 5.20; W., 

 2.40; T., 2.30; B., .35. 



Range — Breeds from southern 

 Keewatin, southern Mackenzie and 

 B. C. south to 111., Neb., and Col. 



(562) Spizella breweri Cassin. 



BREWER'S SPARROW. Shown 

 by the bird on the right; crown 

 streaked with black (no median 

 stripe) ; hind neck, as well as back, 

 streaked with black. L., 5.20; W., 

 2.60; T., 2.30. 



Range — Breeds from Neb., Mont., 

 Alberta and B. C. south to Tex., 

 Ariz, and Cal. 



While their songs are very simple and not musical, the 

 rapid chipping notes are not disagreeable and the birds are 

 very valuable ones to have about, for during the summer 

 their food is almost wholly insectivorous. They will clean 

 bushes and trees as well as the lawn of quantities of injurious 

 vermin. Practically every orchard has its Chippy popu- 

 lation and, as they are not pugnacious, several pairs may 

 live harmoniously even in a small one. Many bushes or 

 trees in pastures or along the roadside, annually hold within 

 their branches a happy home of these attractive little birds. 

 Their nests are made chiefly of black rootlets and are almost 

 always lined with hair; in fact. Chippies are in country-boy 

 parlance often known as Hair-birds. Their eggs are quite 

 distinctive, being greenish-blue, with a wreath of black specks 

 about the large end. Very often, far too often, we may find 

 one of the larger speckled eggs of that feathered parasite, the 

 Cowbird, nestling among the three or four that belong in 

 the nest. 



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