BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
77 
lightly spotted, wholly lacking the heavy central blotch so conspicuous 
on the Song Sparrow. Mr. Shaw of Hampton has a specimen which 
he found feeding in his field. 
Melospiza georgiana. Swamp Sparrow. 584. 
This species is often associated in its summer haunts with the Song 
Sparrow. Though common, it is not generally well known because it 
lives so exclusively in dense tangles of brush in swamps, and is so 
retiring in its disposition as to be difficult to become aquainted with. 
In the breeding season it is noisy but unmusical ; at other times it is 
usually silent. It comes north a week or so later than the Song Spar- 
row, and goes south between the twentieth and the twenty-fifth of 
October. 
Fasserella iliaca. Fox Sparrow. 585. 
Fox Sparrows are spring and fall visitants, abundant in their season, 
yet keeping so closely in woods and bushes as to pass unobserved by 
the majority of people. I have seen them here in numbers on the 
sixteenth of March, and have found them still common on the ninth 
of April. While it is difficult to state exactly just when such retiring 
birds come and go, one may always expect to find them during the 
last week in March and the first week in April. In the fall I have 
observed them on various dates between October 21 and November 
13. They are not very particular as to what sort of woods they stay 
in, provided there be plenty of branches near the ground. In the 
spring of 1898, which opened early and gave us mild weather during 
the latter half of March, Fox Sparrows sang freely. This song is 
similar in character to that of the Vesper Sparrov/, but is louder and 
clearer, being delivered with a force suggestive of a Purple Finch. 
Pipilo erytlirophtlialmus. Towhee. 587. 
The Towhee, or Chewink, as it is quite as often called, is an abun- 
dant summer resident. In looking over its record for the last three 
years I find that its spring coming has occurred with an unequaled 
regularity. Each year they came on the thirteenth of May. The 
majority leave about the first of October, but I have once recorded an 
adult male on October 15. Its entire stay is passed among bushes 
and briers. Its nest is built on the ground, usually in the shelter of a 
bush. The voice of the male is agreeable, though its notes are so 
abruptly delivered that they can hardly be called melodious. When 
singing, he is accustomed to resort to a somewhat elevated perch. 
