380 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 
cheeks ; sides of head and neck otherwise ashy-gray. Below, impurely whitish, tinged with 
ashy anteriorly, washed with pale brownish posteriorly, the middle of the breast with an obscure 
dusky blotch. Middle of back boldly streaked with black, bay, and flaxen ; middle and greater 
wing-coverts black, edged with bay and tipped with white, forming two conspicuous cross-bars ; 
inner secondaries similarly variegated ; other quills and tail-feathers plain dusky, with pale or 
whitish edges. Remarkably constant in coloration ; sexes indistinguishable, and young very 
similar, the chief variation being in the veiling of the cap with gray. There is a very early 
streaky stage, however, as in other species. A handsome sparrow, the largest of the genus. 
Length 5.80-6.20, usually 6.00 ; extent 8.75-9.75, usually 9.25 ; wing and tail 2.75-3.10. 
Abundant in the U. S. in winter, flocking in shrubbery ; breeds in mountainous and boreal 
regions, even to the Arctic coast. Infrequent or casual west of the Rocky Mts. Nest in low 
bushes or on the ground, loosely constructed of bark-strips, weeds, and grasses, warmly 
lined with feathers. Eggs 4-6 or even 7, pale green, minutely and regularly sprinkled with 
reddish-brown spots. 
269. S. domes'tica. (Lat. domestica, domestic. Figs. 237, 238.) Chipping Sparrow. Chip- 
bird OR Chippy. Hair-bird. Adult : Bill black ; feet pale ; crown chestnut ; extreme fore- 
head black, usually divided by a pale line ; a grayish-white superciliary line ; below this a 
blackish stripe through eye and over auriculars ; 
lores dusky. Below, a variable shade of pale ash, 
nearly uniform and entirely unmarked ; back 
streaked with black, dull bay and grayish-brown j 
inner secondaries and wing-coverts similarly vari- 
egated, the tips of the greater and median coverts 
forming whitish bars; rump ashy, with slight 
blackish streaks or none; primaries and tail- 
feathers dusky, with paler edges. Smaller : 
length 5.00-5.50; extent 8.00-9.00; wing 2.66- 
2.75 ; tail less, about 2.50. Sexes alike, but very 
young birds quite different ; the crown being 
streaked like the back, the breast and sides 
Fig. 238. — Chipping-Sparrovv, reduced, (siitp- thickly streaked with dusky, the bill pale brown, 
parddel. Nichols sc.) j^^d the head lacking definite black. In this 
stage, which, however, is of brief duration, it resembles some other species, but may be known 
by a certain ashiness the others lack, and from the small sparrows that are streaked below 
when adult, by its generic characters. North America, extremely abundant, and the most 
familiar species about houses, in gardens, and elsewhere, nesting in shrubbery ; nest of fine 
dried grass, lined with hair; eggs 4-5, bluish, speckled sparsely and chiefly about the larger 
end with blackish-brown, with purplish shell-markings; size about 0.70 X 0.55. 
270. S. d. arizo'nae. (Lat. of Arizona.) Arizona Chipping Sparrow. Like an immature S. 
domestica. Paler than this species, the ashiness in great measure brown; crown grayish-brown 
streaked with dusky like the back, and showing evident traces of rich chestnut, but never 
becoming wholly chestnut ; black frontlet lacking or obscure, and no definite ashy superciliary 
line, the sides of the crown merely lighter brown ; bill brown above, pale below. Arizona, and 
other portions of the Southern Rocky Mt. region. A curious form, as it were an arrested stage 
of domestica. Some specimens, with the least chestnut on the head, look remarkably like 
breweri, but this last is evidently smaller, without chestnut on the head, and otherwise difi"erent. 
271. S. agres'tis. (Lat. agrestis, pertaining to fields; ager, a field.) Field Sparrow. Bill pale 
reddish ; feet very pale ; crown dull chestnut ; auriculars and postocular stripe the same ; no 
decided black or whitish about head. Below, white, unmarked, but much washed with pale 
brown on breast and sides ; sides of head and neck with some vague brown markings; all the 
