FOX SPARROW. 
Passerella tliaca. 
Char Above, foxy red (brightest on wings and rump) streaked with 
ash (in winter the ash is sometimes obscure); head and tail without 
streaks; wings with two white bars; below, white spotted with red. 
Length about 7 inches. 
Nest. Amid moss, or on a low bush , composed of grass and moss, lined 
with grass, roots, and feathers. 
Eggs. 4-5 ; white with green or blue tinge, spotted and blotched with 
brown of several shades (sometimes the brown almost conceals the 
ground color); great variation in size, average about 0.80 X o 65. 
This large and handsome Sparrow, after passing the summer 
and breeding-season in the northern regions of the continent 
around Hudson Bay, and farther north and west perhaps to 
the shores of the Pacific, visits us in straggling parties or pairs 
from the middle of October to November. At this time it 
frequents low, sheltered thickets in moist and watery situations, 
where it usually descends to the ground and is busily employed 
in scratching up the earth and rustling among the fallen leaves 
in quest of seeds, worms, and insects, but more particularly the 
last. It migrates in a desultory manner, and sometimes arrives 
