OF NEW ENGLAND. 203 
dian and superciliary stripes, impure white; side-markings 
often vague). JInterscapulars, bright reddish-brown (or bay”), 
pale-edged, and black-streaked. Tail brown, sometimes faintly 
barred. (Rump, brown with a few markings.) Under parts, 
white (shaded with brown behind), with black streaks, brown- 
edged, on the breast and sides, generally coalescing into a 
conspicuous blotch on the former (and into maxillary stripes). 
Wings in no contrast to the back. 
(b). The nest is composed of dried leaves, stalks, grasses 
and the like, and is often bulky. The lining consists of finer 
materials of the same sort, or of horse-hairs. The nest is 
most often placed upon the ground in fields and pastures, fre- 
quently under shelter of a bush or tussock ; less commonly in 
bushes and thickets on or near meadows, or in shrubbery and 
hedges near houses. Wilson speaks of one found in a cedar- 
tree, five or six feet from the ground; and I have seen or heard 
of several peculiar. specimens, such as one built in a broken 
jar. The eggs vary considerably in size, and greatly in colora- 
tion, often resembling ‘those of other species. In Eastern 
Massachusetts two or three sets of four or five (rarely six) are 
usually laid in the course of the season, the. first appearing 
about the first of May, or even earlier, when snow is on the 
ground. Several different specimens are now before me. The 
first measures ‘85 X ‘60 of an inch, and is dull white (perhaps 
green-tinged), faintly but thickly blotched with a purple-tinged 
brown. The second is elliptical, measuring :78 & ‘60 of an 
inch, and is dull white, thickly but irregularly marked with the 
same purple-tinged brown of a somewhat darker shade, and 
with traces of lilac. The third is almost elliptical, measures 80 
X ‘58 of an inch, and is marked thickly but finely with brown 
and lilac. The fourth measures ‘78 X ‘55 of an inch, and is 
white, tinged with greenish gray, and minutely marked with 
sandy brown, a little lilac, and one or two black scrawls near 
the crown. The fifth is light blue, greenish-tinged, finely 
marked and also irregularly blotched, chiefly at the crown, 
with Vandyke-brown and a little lilac, and measures -78 x ‘58 
of an inch. The sixth measures -77 X ‘55 of an inch, and is 
