Species XIV. FRINGILLA FERE UGINEA.* 
FOX-COLORED SPARROW. 
[Plate XXII. Fig. 4.] 
Rusty Banting, Arct. Zool. p. 364, No. 231. Ib. 233. — Ferruginous Finch, lb. 375, 
No. 251. — FringiUa ruf'a, Bartram, p. 291. 
This plump and pretty species arrives in Pennsylvania from the 
north about the twentieth of October ; frequents low sheltered thickets ; 
associates in little flocks of ten or twelve, and is almost continually 
scraping the ground, and rustling among the fallen leaves. I found 
this bird numerous in November among the rich cultivated flats that 
border the river Connecticut ; and was informed that it leaves those 
places in spring. I also found it in the northern parts of the state of 
Vermont. Along the borders of the great reed and cypress swamps 
of Virginia, and North and South Carolina, as well as around the rice 
plantations, I observed this bird very frequently. They also inhabit 
Newfoundland.! They are rather of a solitary nature, seldom feeding 
in the open fields ; but generally under thickets, or among tall rank 
weeds on the edges of fields. They sometimes associate with the Snow- 
bird, but more generally keep by themselves. Their manners very 
much resemble those of the Red-eyed Bunting (Plate X., fig. 4) ; they 
are silent, tame, and unsuspicious. They have generally no other note 
while here than a shep, shep ; yet I suspect they have some song in the 
places where they breed ; for I once heard a single one, a little before 
the time they leave us, warble out a few very sweet low notes. 
The Fox-colored Sparrow is six inches long, and nine and a quarter 
broad ; the upper part of the head and neck is cinereous, 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 rows of coverts, tipped 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 
* FringiUa iliaca, Merrem, Beytr. n., p. 40, t. 10. — Gmel. i., p. 923. — Lath. Ind. 
Orn. i., p. 438. — FringiUa ferruginea, Gmel. Sgst. i., p. 921. — Lath. <S|y». in., p. 
272, 31.— Ibid. Lid. Orn. i., p. 445. 
f Pennant. 
(121) 
