268 TREE SPARROW. 



correct account of it, and informs us that it inhabits the 

 country bordering on Hudson's Bay during summer ; comes to 

 Severn settlement in May ; advances farther north to breed ; 

 and returns in autumn on its way southward. It also visits 

 Newfoundland.* 



By some of our own naturalists, this species has been con- 

 founded with the chipping sparrow (fig. 5), which it very 

 much resembles, but is larger and handsomer, and is never 

 found with us in summer. The former departs for the south 

 about the same time that the latter arrives from the north ; 

 and from this circumstance, and their general resemblance, 

 has arisen the mistake. 



The tree sparrow is six inches and a half long, and nine 

 and a half in extent ; the whole upper part of the head is of a 

 bright reddish chestnut, sometimes slightly skirted with gray ; 

 from the nostrils, over the eye, passes a white strip, fading 

 into pale ash, as it extends back ; sides of the neck, chin, and 

 breast, very pale ash ; the centre of the breast marked with 

 an obscure spot of dark brown : from the lower angle of the 

 bill proceeds a slight streak of chestnut ; sides, under the 

 wings, pale brown; back, handsomely streaked with pale drab, 

 bright bay, and black ; lower part of the back and rump, 

 brownish drab ; lesser wing-coverts, black, edged with pale 

 ash ; wings, black, broadly edged with bright bay ; the first 

 and second row of coverts, tipt with pure white ; tail, black, 

 forked, and exteriorly edged with dull white ; belly and vent, 

 brownish white ; bill, black above, yellow below ; legs, a 

 brownish clay colour ; feet, black. The female is about half 

 an inch shorter ; the chestnut or bright bay on the wings, 

 back, and crown, is less brilliant; and the white on the coverts 

 narrower, and not so pure. These are all the differences I 

 can perceive.t 



* Arctic Zoology, vol. ii. p. 373. 



t Peculiar to America, and we should say, going more off from the 

 group than F. socialis, Wils., as mentioned by Svvainson in the " Northern 

 Zoology."— Ed. 



