202 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
time on the ground, often alight on the ridge-poles of barns, 
and on fences, or on telegraph-wires,— generally those by the 
roadside, where fields are near at hand. They often venture 
to the roads, where they pick up food, and sometimes dust 
themselves, generally being undisturbed by a near approach. 
When approached in the fields, they often run ahead, if a per- 
son walks behind, occasionally “squatting,” so to speak, as if 
to rest. The whole or partial whiteness of their outer tail- 
feathers, noticeable as the birds fly, renders the Bay-winged 
Buntings easily recognizable. These finches build their nests 
in fields and pasture-lands, usually produce their first set of 
eggs in the early part of May, and raise two or even three 
broods in the course of one summer, so that their duties to 
their young are often not completed until August. In the lat- 
ter part of that month, and later in the season, they are chiefly 
gregarious, and, perhaps associated with Song or Savannah 
Sparrows, frequent in large flocks the roadsides, and their 
other feeding-grounds. Their flights are less confined than 
those of the Savannah Finches, though they are not much on 
the wing. They are, however, bolder than those birds, though 
like them they avoid to a certain extent the neighborhood of 
houses. 
(d). The song of the Bay-winged Buntings is quite loud 
and clear, and resembles that of the Song Sparrow, but is en- 
tirely distinct, and rather sweeter though less lively. It often 
may be heard in the heat of a summer-noon, but is more often 
repeated towards dusk, whence the name of “‘Vesper Sparrow.” 
It is my impression that I have heard it once or twice at night, 
and I have certainly heard it in October. Their ordinary note, 
a chip, is in no way characteristic. 
XII. MELOSPIZA 
(A) metopia. Song Sparrow. 
(A resident in Massachusetts throughout the year. In sum- 
mer very abundant in all the New England States.) 
(a). 53-63 inches long. (Head-markings, never prominent, 
are as follows: —crown bay, finely streaked with black; me- 
