Across the Fields. 239 



When the great troop of birds have passed by and the first snows come, 



there still remains a brownish sparrow to glean a living during the severest 



storm and cold. Like the Snowbird, the Tree Sparrow is 



Tree Sparrow, grregarious, and is, in fact, often associated with that bird, 



Spizella monticola (Gmel.). *' . , , . , , r ■, ■, , • , . 



particularly m bushy open fields, and sometimes about the 

 house. 



This Tree Sparrow is larger than his congeners, the Chipping and Field 

 Sparrows, being about six inches and a quarter long. The prevailing colors 

 above are different shades of brown, and below grayish white. There is a 

 clearly defined reddish brown crown, and a streak of the same color behind 

 the eye. A line above the eye is bluish gray, which color prevails on the 

 sides of the face. The upper part of the bill is dlack, the lower part yellow 

 at the base and dusky at the tip. The back of the neck is grayish brown. 

 The back is variegated with broad streaks of black, and narrower ones of buff_ 

 and reddish brown. The rump is light brown with a grayish tinge. There 

 are two white bars on each wing. The wings and tail are dusky, the exposed 

 edges of the feathers being edged with whitish gray, light grayish brown, and 

 reddish brown. The throat is grayish, changing to lighter gray on the 

 breast, which is marked with a single obscurely defined dark spot. The belly 

 is white, and the sides and flanks are washed with light grayish brown. 



The nest is placed on the ground or near it. It resembles that of the 

 Field Sparrow in its material and construction. The eggs vary in number 

 from three to five. They are much like those of the Chipping Sparrow in 

 color and markings, but larger, being about three quarters of an inch long 

 and nearly three fifths of an inch in their other diameter. 



The birds breed in Labrador and the Hudson's Bay region. They 

 range south in winter to the Carolinas, Kentucky, and Eastern Kansas. 



This is another rather large finch, being about six inches and a half 

 long, that is found commonly in the interior of North America, and which 

 appears as a straggler on our Eastern Coast States. 

 Lark Sparrow. There are various records of its occurrence from Massa- 

 chusetts. Long Island, New York, New Jersey, the vicin- 

 ity of the city of Washington, and Florida. In the latter locality I have 

 twice met with it in the fall and winter. Its regular habitat is from Texas 

 to Southern Ontario, from the States of the Mississippi Valley north of Ala- 

 bama on the east, and west to the Plains. 



