126 



SONG SPARROW 



rows. I have found this bird in every district of the United States 

 from Canada to the southern boundaries of Georgia; but Mr. Ab- 

 bot informs me, that he knows of only one or two species that re- 

 main in that part of Georgia during the summer. 



The Song Sparrow builds in the ground, under a tuft of grass ; 

 the nest is formed of fine dry grass, and lined with horse hair; the 

 eggs are four or five, thickly marked with spots of reddish brown 

 on a white, sometimes bluish white ground ; if not interrupted, he 

 raises three brood in the season. I have found his nest with young 

 as early as the twenty-sixth of April, and as late as the twelfth of 

 August. What is singular, the same bird often fixes his nest in a 

 cedar tree, five or six feet from the ground. Supposing this to 

 have been a variety, or different species, I have examined the l)ird, 

 nest and eggs, with particular care, several times; but found no 

 difference. I have observed the same accidental habit in the Red- 

 winged Blackbird, which sometimes builds among the grass, as 

 well as on alder bushes. 



This species is six inches and a half long, and eight and a 

 half in extent; upper part of the head dark chesnut, divided, late- 

 rally, by a line of pale dirty white ; spot at each nostril yellow 

 ochre ; line over the eye inclining to ash ; chin white ; streak from 

 the lower mandible, slit of the mouth, and posterior angle of the 

 eye, dark chesnut; breast and sides under the wings thickly mark- 

 ed with long pointed spots of dark chesnut, centered with black, 

 and running in chains; belly white; vent yellow ochre, streaked 

 with brown; back streaked with black, bay, and pale ochre; tail 

 brown, rounded at the end, the two middle feathers streaked down 

 their centres with black; legs flesh colored; wing coverts black, 

 broadly edged with bay, and tipt with yellowish white; wings dark 

 brown. The female is scarcely distinguishable by its plumage from 

 the male. The bill in both horn colored. 



