380 NESTS AND EGOS OF 



Nearly everybody knows this familiar little bird as Chippy, Chip-bird, or Hair- 

 bird. The latter name is given it from the fact that its nest is for the most part, 

 composed of horse hair, with a slight foundation of fine grass and vegetable fibres. 

 The breeding season is usually in May and June. The nest is built anywhere in 

 bushes, hedges, trees of any size, and almost in any situation. In exceptional cases 

 it has been found built on the ground. The same pair of birds if unmolested will 

 return and breed in the vicinity of their former nest year after year. Three or four 

 eggs are laid, rarely five, bluish-green, sparsely spotted with blackish-brown and 

 purplish, sometimes in a circle about the larger end. Ten eggs selected on account 

 of their sizes measure: .60x.50, .62x52, .65x.52, ;69x.50, .69x.53, .71x.54, .70x.5O, .72x.51, 

 .67X.50, .73X.52. Average size .68x.51. 



560a. WESTERN CHIPPIITQ- SPARROW. Spinella socialis arisonce Coues. 

 Geog. Dist. — Western North America, east to Rocky Mountains; in summer north to 

 beyond 60°; south in winter to southern Mexico. 



Eggs in my collection of this paler Western subspecies do not seem to differ es- 

 sentially from those of socialis. Nesting the same. 



561. CLAY-COI/ORED SPARROW. Spizella pallida (Swains.) Geog. Dist.— 

 Interior regions of North America from Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, west to base 

 of Rocky Mountains, north to the Saskatchewan, south to Texas and New Mexico; 

 in winter to Lower California and Mexico. 



The Clay-colored Sparrow breeds from Northern Illinois and Central Iowa 

 northward. Mr. J. W. Preston found it breeding in WinnebagQ county, Iowa, in 

 June, 1S85, and in the summers of 1885 and 1886 in Becker county, Minnesota. The 

 bird is an abundant breeder in Western Manitoba. The nesting season is usually 

 in May and June. Mr. Preston found the bird frequenting the edges of brush and the 

 borders of timber. The nests were placed on the ground; one, however, was built in 

 the branches of a low hazel. The materials used in the construction of the nests were 

 fine, round grasses and blades, with a lining of horse hairs. The eggs were three 

 to five in number, commonly three or four, the latter number predominating. They 

 are similar in color to those of the Chipping Sparrow, 8. socialis, and average about 

 the same in size, .65x.50. Mr. Norris has a set of four taken near Detroit, Minnesota, 

 June 4, 1886; their sizes are: .64x.47, .64x.47, .62x.47, .64x.48; in these specimens the 

 markings are fainter than are those of S. socialis. As many as six eggs are said to 

 be laid by this species. 



562. BREWER'S SPARROW. Spieella hreweri Cass. Geog. Dist.— Western 

 United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, south in winter to North- 

 western Mexico. 



This bird has very much the appearance of the Clay-colored Sparrow, but is 

 paler and duller, all the markings being indistinct. It is, found from the Pacific 

 coast to the Rocky Mountains, and from the northern portion of California to the 

 Rio Grande and Mexico, and is especially abundant in Arizona and New Mexico. It 

 inhabits almost exclusively open fields and bushy plains. The nests are placed in 

 bushes, usually the sage, a few feet from the ground. It is composed of dry grasses, 

 rootlets, and lined with hair. The eggs are generally four in number. A series of 

 the eggs of this species in Mr. Norris' cabinet, collected near Fort Klamath, Oregon, 

 resemble in size and coloration the eggs of the Chipping Sparrow, but as a rule the 



