Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
But the swamp sparrows frequently belie their name, and, 
especially in the South, live in dry fields, worn-out pasture lands 
with scrubby, weedy patches in them. They live upon seeds of 
grasses and berries, but Dr. Abbott has detected their special 
fondness for fish—not fresh fish particularly, but rather such as 
have lain in the sun for a few days and become dry as a chip. 
Their nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in a tussock 
of grass or roots of an upturned tree quite surrounded by water. 
Four or five soiled white eggs with reddish-brown spots are laid 
usually twice in a season. 
Tree Sparrow 
(Spizella monticola) Finch family 
Called also: CANADA SPARROW ; WINTER CHIPPY ; TREE 
BUNTING ; WINTER CHIP-BIRD ; ARCTIC CHIPPER 
Length—6 to 6.35 inches. About the same size as the English 
sparrow. 
Male—Crown of head bright chestnut. Line over the eye, cheeks, 
throat, and breast gray, the breast with an indistinct black 
spot on centre. Brown back, the feathers edged with black 
and buff. Lower back pale grayish brown. Two whitish 
bars across dusky wings; tail feathers bordered with grayish 
white. Underneath whitish. 
female—Smialler and less distinctly marked. 
Range—North America, from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, and 
westward to the plains. 
Migrations—October. April. Winter resident. 
A revised and enlarged edition of the friendly little chipping 
sparrow, that hops to our very doors for crumbs throughout the 
mild weather, comes out of British America at the beginning of 
winter to dissipate much of the winter’s dreariness by his cheer- 
ful twitterings. Why he should have been called a tree spar- 
row is a mystery, unless because he does not frequent trees—a 
reason with sufficient plausibility to commend the name to sev- 
eral of the early ornithologists, who not infrequently called a bird 
precisely what it was not. The tree sparrow actually does not 
show half the preference for trees that its familiar little counter- 
part does, but rather keeps to low bushes when not on the 
161 
