342 
SINGING BIRDS. 
SWAMP SPARROW. 
Melospiza georgiana. 
Char. Above, streaked with brown, black, and buff; crown bay, 
sometimes with indistinct median line of ash and streaks of black ; fore- 
head black; brown stripe behind eyes; sides of head and neck ash; 
below, dull white, breast shaded with ash, sides shaded with brown ; 
wings and tail tinged with bay. Length about 5^ inches. 
Nest. U ndcr cover of long grass, in a swamp or wet meadow ; usually 
made entirely of grass, though sometimes weed-stems are added to the 
exterior, and hair is used in lining. 
£ggs. 4-6; dull white, tinted with green, blue, or pink, blotched, often 
clouded, with lilac and several shades of brown ; o.So X 0.60. 
The aquatic habits of these common, though little known, 
birds is one of their most remarkable peculiarities. In New 
England they arrive from the Southern States, where they win- 
ter, about the middle of April, and take up their summer resi- 
dence in the swamps and marshy meadows through which, 
often without flying, they thread their devious way with the 
same alacrity as the Rail, with whom they are indeed often 
associated in neighborhood. In consequence of this perpetual 
brushing through sedge and bushes, their feathers are fre- 
quently so worn that their tails appear almost like those of 
rats, and are very often flirted in the manner of the Wagtail. 
Occasionally, however, they mount to the tops of low bushes 
or willow-trees and chant forth a few trilling, rather monoto- 
nous minor notes, resembling, in some measure, the song of 
the Field Sparrow, and appearing like tiue tiu' tw’ tiv' tiv' hv' 
twk, and tivV tiu'l 'tin tw' hue, uttered in a pleasant and some- 
what varied warble. These notes are made with considerable 
effort, and sometimes with a spreading of the tail. In the 
spring, on their first arrival, this song is delivered with much 
spirit, and echoes through the marshes like the trill of the 
Canary. The sound now resembles the syllables 'tw 'ha 'hv 
'hvee 'twee 'hv 'hue 'hve, or 'tshp 'tshp 'tshe 'tsh 'tsh 'tsh 'tsh, 
beginning loud, sweet, and somewhat plaintive ; and the song 
is continued till late in the morning, and after sunset in the 
evening. This reverberating tone is again somewhat similar 
