1883.] 377 [Brewster. 



voice is such a marked feature of the northern woods that it is sure 

 to attract the attention of every one who hears it there, although 

 only an occasional listener may know its author by his true 

 name. 



34. Passerella iliaca, Merr. — Fox Sparrow. 



We found the Fox Sparrow among the Magdalens, on Anti- 

 costi, and everywhere along the North Shore. It was not detected 

 at the Gut of Canso, nor at either Port Hood, or Gaspe. In fact, 

 I doubt if it breeds, at least regularly, anywhere south of the St. 

 Lawrence except on the Magdalens, for it is a species which 

 could not be overlooked, even by the most superficial observer. It 

 was particularly abundant at Fox Bay, Anticosti, where its favor- 

 ite haunts were the impenetrable thickets of stunted firs and 

 spruces near the coast ; although it also occurred plentifully in 

 the heavier forests of the interior, especially about openings. At 

 Ellis Bay, as well as along the North Shore, it was much less nu- 

 merous. No nests were found, but young in first plumage (sim- 

 ilar to those which formed the types of Verrill's " Passerella ob- 

 scura" x ) and still under the care of their parents were taken at 

 Fox Bay on July 9. 



What -the Mockingbird is to the South, the Meadow Lark to 

 the plains of the West, the Robin and Song Sparrow to Massa- 

 chusetts, and the White-throated Sparrow to northern New Eng- 

 land, the Fox Sparrow is to the bleak regions bordering the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. At all hours of the day, in every kind of 

 weather late into the brief summer, its voice rises among the 

 evergreen woods filling the air with quivering, delicious melody, 

 which at length dies softly, mingling with the soughing of the 

 wind in the spruces, or drowned by the muffled roar of the surf 

 beating against neighboring cliffs. To my ear the prominent 

 characteristic of its voice is richness. It expresses careless joy and 

 exultant masculine vigor, rather than delicate shades of senti- 

 ment, and on this account is perhaps of a lower order than the 

 pure, passionless hymn of the Hermit Thrush ; but it is such a 

 fervent, sensuous, and withal perfectly-rounded carol that it 

 affects the ear much as sweetmeats do the palate, and for the 

 moment renders all other bird music dull and uninteresting by 

 comparison. 



1 See Proc. Bos. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. ix, Oct. 1862, pp. 143-145 



