FRINGILLIDiE. 
I 57 
than the 29th of May, nor later than July, I find this species recorded 
from the east branch of the Navesink. Though I failed to note the 
bird within a few miles of the locality given, the record allows a 
suspicion that the species may occasionally summer in the region. 
Spizella domestica (Bartr.) Coues. Chipping Sparrow. 
Common about cultivation; being replaced by the Snowbird, of 
very similar song, in wilder situations. 
Spizella agrestis (Bartr.) Coues. Field Sparrow. 
Uncommon, although several times met with; but not at a higher 
altitude than 2,000 feet. 
Junco hiemalis (L.) Scl. Slate-colored Snowbird 
Met with almost everywhere, except in the lower and more culti- 
vated portions of the valleys, this species may be considered the 
most universally distributed bird of the Catskills. 
In the valleys, it may be observed along the roadsides, or even 
hopping about in the roadway like the common Song Sparrow; while 
it is also found in the woodland glades, and penetrates the mountain 
forests up to the highest altitudes, where no other ground nesting 
member of its family attains. Sloping banks overgrown with moss, 
ferns, and wood-plants, along the borders of mountain roads, are 
favorite nesting sites. Data of its nidification in the Catskills indi- 
cates great variation in the time of laying, and also that two or more 
broods are reared. On May 30 and 31, 1874, two nests, each with 
four eggs containing embryos, were found by my brothers, and July 
7 and 8, ot the same year, two nests contained equal sets of eggs 
perfectly fresh. In June, 1880, young only were found, but of great 
diversity of age; on the 7th a brood, out of the nest, and well able to 
fly was met with, and just a week later two broods were about equally 
advanced; but on the 8th, a nest contained young but a few days old, 
and on the 10th, the living contents of another nest were about half 
grown. A nest on June 20, 1873, contained two young and a single 
egg. Of three nests examined by Mr. Pearsall between June 5 and 7, 
the eggs were, in one almost fresh; in another almost hatched; in the 
remaining one in a condition intermediate to the other two. So far 
as observed the number of eggs or young was always four, both at 
the earliest and latest limits of the breeding season. 
One nest was built in a cavity scooped directly beneath part of 
a fence-rail lying on the ground, and was most effectually concealed ; 
another was very similarly situated. 
Melospiza fasciata (Gm.) Scott. Song Sparrow. 
Common. 
