FBINGILLIBJE : FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPABROWS, ETC. 371 
and under parts, fading to whitish on throat and belly ; the sides, flanks, and crissum marked 
with brown, and obsoletely streaked with darker brown. Back and rump brown, rather darker 
than sides of body, boldly variegated with black central streaks of the feathers and their pale 
brown or grayish edges. Wings so strongly edged with bright bay as to appear almost uni- 
formly brownish-red when closed; but inner secondaries and greater coverts showing some 
black and whitish besides the bay. Tail likewise strongly edged with bay, and usually showing 
sharp black shaft lines. Thus well marked by the emphasis of black, bay, and ash. Length 
5.40-5.80, usually 5.60 ; extent 7.50-8.00 ; wing and tail, each, 2.20-2.40. Varies little except 
as above noted, and in extent and intensity of the ash on fore and under parts. In birds of the 
first autumn, the crown may be quite blackish, with little chestnut and an ashy median stripe. 
Very young birds may be conspicuous- 
ly stroaj^ed below, and a few streaks 
may persist on the sides of the breast. 
North Amer, at large, W. to Utah, N. 
to Hudson's Bay and Labrador, but 
chieHy Eastern U. S. and Canada; 
breeding at least from New England 
n(n'thward, wintering entirely in the 
Southern States. Abundant, but a 
timid recluse of shrubbery, swamp, 
and brake, and seldom seen by the^?-o- 
fanum vidgus; a good musici^in, like 
all the genus. Nesting and eggs like 
those of the song sparrow. 
244. M. fascia' ta. (Lat. fasciata, bundled 
together ; fascis, a bundle of rods ; fas- 
cia, a band; whence fasciata, banded, 
striped ; the allusion not to the body- 
streaks, but to the obsolete bands on 
the tail-feathers. Fig. 234.) SoNa 
Sparrow. Silver-tongue. Below, Nichols sc.) 
white, slightly shaded with brownish on the flanks and crissum ; with numerous black -centred, 
brown-edged streaks across breast and along sides, usually forming a pectoral blotch and 
coalescing into maxillary stripes bounding the white throat ; crown dull bay, with fine black 
streaks, divided in the middle and bounded on either side by ashy- whitish lines ; vague brown 
or dusky and whitish markings on the sides of the head ; a brown post-ocular stripe over the 
gray auriculars, and another, not so well defined, from angle of mouth below the auriculars ; 
the interscapular streaks black, with bay and ashy-white edgings ; rump and cervix grayish- 
brown, with merely a few bay marks ; wings with dull bay edgings, the coverts and inner quills 
marked like the interscapulars ; tail plain brown, with darker shaft lines, on the middle feathers 
at least, and often with obsolete transverse wavy markings. Very constant in plumage, the 
chief differences being in the sharpness and breadth of the markings, due in part to the wear of 
the feathers. In worn midsummer plumage, the streaking is very sharp, narrow, and black, 
from wearing of the rufous and whitish, especially observable below where the streaks contrast 
with white, and giving the impression of heavier streaking than in fall and winter, when, in 
fresher feather, the markings are softer and more suffuse. The aggregation of spots into a 
blotch on the middle of the breast is usual. Bill dark brown, paler below ; feet pale brown. 
Length 5.90-6.50, usually 6.30; extent 8.25-9.25, usually 8.50-9.00; wing 2.40-2.75, usually 
about 2.60 ; tail nearer 3.00. 9 averaging near the lesser dimensions, but the species re- 
markably constant in size, form, and coloring. Eastern U. S. and Canada, breeding through - 
Fig. 233. — bwanii) Song Sparrow, reduced. (Sheppard del. 
