54 



FOX-COLORED SPARROW 



edged with rust color; back handsomely mottled with reddish brown 

 and cinereous; wings and tail bright ferruginous; the primaries 

 dusky within and at the tips, the first and second row of coverts, 

 tipt with white; breast and belly white; the former, as well as the 

 ear feathers, marked with large blotches of bright bay, or reddish 

 brown, and the beginning of the belly with little arrow-shaped spots 

 of black; the tail coverts and tail are a bright fox color; the legs 

 and feet a dirty brownish white, or clay color, and very strong; 

 the bill is strong, dusky above and yellow below; iris of the eye 

 hazel. The chief difference in the female is that the wings are not 

 of so bright a bay, inclining more to a drab; yet this is scarcely 

 observable, unless by a comparison of the two together. They are 

 generally very fat, live on grass seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel. 



