156 Bird Studies. 



range north to British Columbia and Montana, and south 'into Mexico. 

 There is the record of the capture of one in Michigan, where it must be 

 regarded as accidental. 



There is a large thrush-like looking bird that visits us in the early- 

 spring and late fall. You will notice it in thickets along the roadside, in 

 brush heaps and tangles in the woods. Often only a pair, 

 Fox Sparrow. ^^^ frequently half a dozen or more of these birds asso- 



Passerella ihaca (Merr.)- ^ -^ 



ciate together, and the company is often swelled to large 

 proportions by Snowbirds and White-throated Sparrows. 



The birds are about seven inches long, and of a general reddish brown 

 tone. On the upper parts the underlying color is bluish slate, which shows 

 plainly in the region back of the eye, more obscurely on the top of the head 

 and back, and becomes entirely concealed on the rump, which is bright red- 

 dish brown. The tail is similar to the rump in shade, and the wings are 

 dusky with reddish brown markings. The lower parts are white, heavily 

 marked and spotted on the throat, breast, and chest, and streaked on the 

 sides and flanks with brown. The belly, and the feathers under the tail, are 

 white, the latter having in some individuals brownish streaking. The lower 

 part of the bill is yellowish, and the eyes brown. 



The Fox Sparrow breeds on the ground and in low bushes, building a 

 nest of coarse plant fibres and grass, lined with finer material, hair and 

 feathers. Three to five light blue eggs are laid. They are evenly marked, 

 sometimes blotched, with varying shades of brown, and about nine tenths of 

 an inch long, and a little over three fifths of an inch in width. 



The birds are found throughout Eastern North America from the Arctic 

 regions to the Gulf States. They breed from the Magdalen Islands and 

 Manitoba northward, and winter chiefly south of the Potomac and Ohio 

 Rivers. 



The Piney-woods Sparrow is found in the grassy pine woods of Southern 

 Georgia and Florida, where it breeds, and it moves but little to the south in 

 Pine-woods winter, returning early in the spring to its breeding 

 Sparrow. grounds, 

 peucsea asstivaiis (Licht.). Jt is a bird iu general build not unlike a Song Spar- 



row, and is about five inches and three quarters long. The feathers of the 



