SPECIES 10. FRINGILLA PALUSTRIS. 
SWAMP SPARROW. 
[Plate XXII. — Fig. 1.] 
Passer palustris, Bartuam, 291. — Peale’s Museum, J^o. 6569. 
The history of this obscure and humble species is short and 
uninteresting. Unknown or overlooked by the naturalists of 
Europe it is now for the first time introduced to the notice of 
the world. It is one of our summer visitants, arriving in Penn- 
sylvania early in April, frequenting low grounds, and river 
courses; rearing two, and sometimes three broods in a season; 
and returning to the south as the cold weather commences. 
The immense cypress swamps and extensive grassy flats of the 
southern states, that border their numerous rivers, and the rich 
rice plantations abounding with their favourite seeds and suste- 
nance, appear to be the general winter resort, and grand annual 
rendezvous, of this and all other species of Sparrow that remain 
with us during summer. From the river Trent in North 
Carolina, to that of Savannah, and still farther south, I found 
this species very numerous; not flying in flocks, but skulking 
among the canes, reeds, and grass, seeming shy and timorous, 
and more attached to the water than any other of their tribe. 
In the month of April numbers pass through Pennsylvania to 
the northward, which I conjecture from the circumstance of 
finding them at that season in particular parts ofthe woods, where 
during the rest of the year they are not to be seen. The few 
that remain frequent the swamps, and reedy borders of our creeks 
and rivers. They form their nest in the ground, sometimes in a 
tussock of rank grass, surrounded by water, and lay four eggs of 
a dirty white, spotted with rufous. So late as the fifteenth of 
August, I have seen them feeding their young that were scarce- 
