OF NEW ENGLAND. 211 
twentieth of April, but are not at that season gregarious, and 
about the first of May become abundant, soon afterwards be- 
ginning to build their nests. They inhabit more or less pas- 
ture-land, but particularly affect the neighborhood of man— 
to such a degree that they were formerly abundant on Boston 
Common, though they have lately been somewhat supplanted 
by the English sparrows. They frequent lawns, orchards, 
gardens, the neighborhood of houses, and public ways. They 
often obtain on the roadsides the small seeds which constitute 
a part of their food, and, when so doing, are rarely disturbed 
by the approach of man. They feed also very largely in sum- 
mer upon, small caterpillars, inclusive of the dreaded canker- 
worms, and are thus beneficial to man. Towards one another 
they are rather pugnacious, but perhaps playfully so. Their 
flight, never a long one, is in no way peculiar. They often 
_perch upon fences, and sometimes between two narrowly sep- 
arated pickets, which well illustrates their littleness. They 
rarely perch or fly at any great height from the ground, and 
indeed are not commonly to be seen in tall trees, unless in the 
lower branches, for instance of the pines, in which they often 
build their nests. There is hardly a populated district of 
Massachusetts where they are not common, but to the north- 
ward of that State they gradually become rarer, though in sum- 
mer found in Arctic countries. In Northern New Hampshire, 
they are not very numerous, and they there collect in small 
flocks so early as August. In Massachusetts they congregate 
in September, sometimes to the number of a hundred, but do 
not associate much with other species. They disappear in the 
early part of October, and retire to pass the winter in the 
South. Before their departure they frequent the roadsides, or 
vegetable-gardens, where they can obtain abundant food, and 
may often be seen to pursue one another, uttering their rather 
weak battle-cries. 
(ad). Their ordinary note is a single chip, like that of the 
Tree Sparrow. But the “Chippers” also possess a variety of 
combined chips, and a series of querulous twitters, which they 
employ as a battle-cry. Their nearest approach to a song is 
