266 
FIELD SPARROW. 
nest on the ground, generally at the foot of a brier ; lines it 
with horse hair ; lays six eggs, so thickly sprinkled with 
ferruginous, as to appear altogether of that tint ; and raises 
two, and often three, broods in a season. It is more frequently 
found in the middle of fields and orchards than any of the other 
species, which usually lurk along hedgerows. It has no song, 
but a kind of chirruping, not much different from the chirpings 
of a cricket. Towards fall, they assemble in loose flocks, in 
orchards and corn fields, in search of the seeds of various rank 
weeds ; and are then very numerous. As the weather becomes 
severe, with deep snow, they disappear. In the lower parts 
of North and South Carolina, I found this species in multi- 
tudes in the months of January and February. When disturbed, 
they take to the bushes, clustering so close together, that a 
dozen may easily be shot at a time. I continued to see them 
equally numerous through the whole lower parts of Georgia ; 
from whence, according to Mr Abbot, they all disappear early 
in the spring. 
None of our birds have been more imperfectly described 
than that family of the Finch tribe usually called Sparrows. 
They have been considered as too insignificant for particular 
notice, yet they possess distinct characters, and some of them 
peculiarities, well worthy of notice. They are innocent in 
their habits, subsisting chiefly on the small seeds of wild 
plants, and seldom injuring the property of the farmer. In 
the dreary season of winter, some of them enliven the prospect 
by hopping familiarly about our doors, humble pensioners on 
the sweepings of the threshold. 
The present species has never before, to my knowledge, 
been figured. It is five inches and a quarter long, and eight 
inches broad ; bill and legs, a reddish cinnamon colour ; upper 
mentioned neither by Wilson nor Bonaparte, has been added by the overland 
expedition , — Emberiza pallida, Clay Coloured Bunting, Sw. and Richard. 
North. Zool. It approaches nearest to E. socialis, but differs in wanting the 
bright rufous crown, and having the ear-feathers brown, margined above and 
below with a dark edge — Ed. 
