SWAMP SPARROW. 339 



in flocks, but skulking among the canes, reeds, and grass, 

 seeming shy and timorous, and more attached to the water 

 than any other of their tribe. In the month of April, numbers 

 pass through Pennsylvania to the northward, which I conjecture 

 from the circumstance of finding them at that season in par- 

 ticular parts of the woods, where, during the rest of the year, 

 they are not to be seen. The few that remain frequent the 

 swamps and reedy borders of our creeks and rivers. They 

 form their nest in the ground, sometimes in a tussock of rank 

 grass surrounded by water, and lay four eggs of a dirty white 

 spotted with rufous. So late as the 15th of August, I have 

 seen them feeding their young that were scarcely able to fly. 

 Their principal food is grass seeds, wild oats, and insects. 

 They have no song ; are distinguished by a single chip or 

 cheep, uttered in a rather hoarser tone than that of the song 

 sparrow ; flirt the tail as they fly ; seldom or never take to the 

 trees, but skulk from one low bush or swampy thicket to 

 another. 



The swamp sparrow is five inches and a half long, and 

 seven inches and a half in extent ; the back of the neck and 

 front are black ; crown, bright bay, bordered with black ; a 

 spot of yellowish white between the eye and nostril ; sides of 

 the neck and whole breast, dark ash ; chin, white ; a streak of 

 black proceeds from the lower mandible, and another from the 

 posterior angle of the eye ; back, black, slightly skirted with 

 bay ; greater coverts also black, edged with bay ; wings and 

 tail, plain brown; belly and vent, brownish white; bill, dusky 

 above, bluish below ; eyes, hazel ; legs, brown ; claws, strong 

 and sharp, for climbing the reeds. The female wants the bay 

 on the crown, or has it indistinctly ; over the eye is a line of 

 dull white. 



