106 
FIELD SP Ail ROW. 
from the lower mandible ; feathers of the crown narrow, rather long, 
and generally erected, but not so as to form a crest ; nostrils and base 
of the bill covered with reflected brownish hairs; eye dark hazel; 
wings and tail dark blackish brown, edged with olive; first and second 
row of coverts tipped with pale yellow ; chin white ; breast pale cream, 
marked with pointed spots of deep olive brown; belly and vent Avdute ; 
legs brown. This bird, with several others marked nearly in the same 
manner, was shot, April twenty-fifth, while engaged in eating the buds 
from the beech tree. 
Species III. FRINGILLA PUSILLA. 
FIELD SPARROW. 
[Plate XVI. Pig. 2.] 
Passer agrestis, Bartram, p. 291. 
This is the smallest of all our Sparrows, and in Pennsylvania is 
generally migratory. It arrives early in April, frequents dry fields 
covered with long grass, builds a small nest on the ground, generally at 
the foot of a 'briar, lines it with horse-hair; lays six eggs so thickly 
sprinkled with ferruginous as to appear altogether of that tint ; and 
raises two, and often three, broods in a season. It is more frequently 
found in the middle of fields and orchards than any of the other species, 
which usually lurk along hedge rows. It has no song ; but a kind of 
chirrupping not much different from the chirpings of a cricket. Towards 
fall they assemble in loose flocks in orchards and corn fields, in search 
of the seeds of various rank weeds ; and are then very numerous. As 
the weather becomes severe, with deep snow, they disappear. In the 
lower parts of North and South Carolina I found this species in multi- 
tudes in the months of January and February. "When disturbed they 
take to the bushes, clustering so close together that a dozen may easily 
be shot at a time. I continued to see them equally numerous through 
the whole lower parts of Georgia ; from whence, according to Mr. Abbot, 
they all disappear early in the spring. 
None of our birds have been more imperfectly described than that 
family of the Finch tribe usually called Sparrows. They have been 
considered as too insignificant for particular notice, yet they possess 
distinct characters, and some of them peculiarities, well worthy of notice. 
They are innocent in their habits, subsisting chiefly on the small seeds 
of wild plants, and seldom injuring the property of the farmer. In the 
dreary season of winter some of them enliven the prospect by hopping 
