336 
SINGING BIRDS. 
FIELD SPARROW. 
Spizella pusilla. 
Char. Above, streaked rufous, black, and buff ; crown chestnut, with 
obscure median line of ash ; hind neck, sides of head and neck ash ; cheek 
shaded with brown ; wings with two white bars ; below, white ; breast and 
throat tinged with yellow. I.ength inches. 
JVesl. In a field, pasture, or open woodland, amid a tuft of grass or in 
a tangled thicket, sometimes placed on a low bush or vine ; composed of 
grass, twigs, and straw, lined with hair, fine roots, or fur. 
Algff. 3-5; dull white or with buff or green tint, usually thickly spotted 
with reddish brown ; 0.70 X 0.55. 
The Small Brown Sparrow arrives in Pennsylvania and New 
England from the Southern States, where it passes the winter, 
in the beginning of April. It is with us a shy, wild, and retir- 
ing species, partial to dry hills and pastures, and open, bushy, 
secluded woods, living much in trees. In autumn, indeed, the 
pair, accompanied by their brood, in small flitting flocks leave 
their native wilds, and glean at times in the garden or orchard ; 
yet but little is now seen of them, as they only approach culti- 
vated grounds a few weeks before their departure. These 
Sparrows, if indeed they are the same as those described by 
Wilson, in winter flock together in great numbers in the 
Southern States, and mingling with the Chipping Birds and 
other species, they now line the roads, fences, and straggling 
bushes near the plantations in such numbers as, with their 
sober and brown livery, to resemble almost a shower of rust- 
ling and falling leaves, continually haunting the advancing 
steps of the traveller in hungry, active flocks, driven by the 
storms of winter into this temporary and irksome exile. But 
no sooner does the return of early spring arrive than they flit 
entirely from the Southern wilds to disperse in pairs and seek 
out again their favorite natal regions of the North. 
Our little bird has a pretty loud and shrill note, which may 
be heard at a considerable distance, and possesses some variety 
of tone and expression. Sometimes it is something like fzoe 
twee twdi, tw ’tw ’tw ’tw ’tw ’tw 'tw, beginning loud and 
