Birds of The Palisades Interstate Park 
53 
it. is not well known, for it should have an acquaintanceship as exten- 
sive as that of the Robin, Bluebird, and House Wren. It frequents 
bushes and shrubbery, especially along the margins of river, lake 
and brook, and it is not averse to the garden and orchard shrubs. 
It can be identified by its uniform streaked coat, with a prominent 
blackish spot on the middle breast. Like most of the sparrows, the 
Song Sparrow is disposed to elude observation, seeking the shelter 
of the bushy coverts when alarmed. It can always be studied along 
the bushy shores of swamp or lake. 
31. FiELn Sparrow. Spizella pusilla pusilla (Wils.) 
This interesting little sparrow is a frequenter of the open bushy 
tracts, clearings with low scattered bushes, or bare hillsides and 
meadows affording scattered clumps of shrubs. Its singing is a 
plaintive utterance, beginning with several similar notes and run- 
ning into a hurried trill of similar tones. This relative of the 
Chipping Sparrow much resembles the latter, both having an 
unspotted breast, but the reddish brown bill of the Field Sparrow 
is a distinguishing mark, together with its preference for the more 
open bushy spots. 
32. Chipping Sparrow. Spizella passerina passerina (Bech.) 
The Chipping Sparrow is one of the common and familiar birds 
of the Bear Mountain locality. It frequents the margins of the 
woods, wherever open and scattered shrubs are interspersed with 
sapling and small tree growth, especially in artificial park-like spots 
supplied with small evergreens, particularly hemlock, fir, and cedar. 
Its favorite nesting sites are the tops of the small evergreens, either 
isolated or in the edge of a thicket of fire cherry, sumach, aspen, 
birc-h, maple or other clustered sapling growth. The Chipping 
Sparrow can he distinguished from the Field Sparrow by its black 
bill, and the black line through the eye bordered by a white line 
above. The song of the Chipping Sparrow is quite different from 
that of its relative, consisting of a series of uniform notes resem- 
bling the syllable “chip”. The nest is generally composed of a 
small amount of fine dried grass with a considerable inner wall 
