BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 195 



and devour the young of other small birds. Our native song and 

 insectivorous birds, viz : the Robin, Bluebird, Wren, Chippy, Song 

 Sparrow, Red-eyed Vireos and some few others, which were formerly 

 plentiful residents in our lawns, parks and gardens, have rapidly and 

 steadily diminished since the hosts of pugnacious Sparrows have ap- 

 peared. This species is more or less gregarious at all seasons of t he year. 

 When not engaged in rearing their young they are always observed 

 in Hocks. In the late summer and autumn, they assemble in flocks 

 of hundreds and daily repair to the wheat and corn fields in the 

 vicinity of cities and towns, where they commit serious depredations, 

 that are only checked by harvesting the crops. In 1S83, the members 

 of the West Chester Microscopical Society, and several farmers' clubs 

 of Chester. Delaware and Lancaster counties, recognizing the great 

 injury which was being done by this feathered pest, passed resolu- 

 tions and petitioned our Legislature, then in session, to repeal that 

 portion of the act of Assembly which made it a misdemeanor to kill 

 the English Sparrow. Through the prompt and energetic efforts of 

 Senators A. D. Harlan, of Chester county, and Thomas Y. Cooper, of 

 Delaware county, the law was so amended that the killing of English 

 Sparrows, and the destroying of their nests, eggs or young at all sea- 

 sons of the year, is now legalized. 



GENUS MELOSPIZA. BATED. 

 581. Melospiza fasciata (GMEL.). 



Song Sparrow. 



DESCRIPTION. (Plate 30; Fig. 4, male.) 



Bill, legs, feet and eyes brown ; general tint of upper parts rufous-brown, streased 

 with dark-brown and ashy-gray ; the crown is rufous, with a superciliary and median 

 stripo of dull-gray, the former lighter ; nearly white anteriorly, where it has a faint 

 shade of yellow ; each feather of the crown with a narrow streak of dark-brown ; 

 intcrscapulars dark-brown in the center, then rufous, then grayish on the margin ; 

 rump grayer than than upper tail coverts, both with obsolete dark streaks ; there is 

 a whitish maxillary stripe, bordered above and below by one of dark rufous-brown, 

 with a similar 0110 from behind the eye ; the under parts are* white ; the breast and 

 sides of body and throat streaked with dark-rufous, with a still darker center line; 

 on the middle of the breast these marks are rather aggregated so as to form a spot ; 

 no distinct white on tail or wings. Young differ from the adults chiefly in having 

 the under parts more or less yellowish, Length, about GI inches ; extent, about 8j 

 inches. 



Hob. Eastern United States to the plains, breeding from Virginia and the north- 

 ern portion of the Lake States northward. 



Common resident, but never seen in flocks. Frequents in the sum- 

 mer, fence rows, shubbery in swamps, fields and gardens. Although 

 this species is found during the summer about bushy, briery and 

 weed- grown places along streams, ponds, ditches, etc., it is most 

 abundant in these last named localities during the winter. The 



