SWAMP SPARROW. 
339 
seeming sliy 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 con- 
jecture from the circumstance of finding them at that season 
in particular parts of the 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 15th of August, I have 
seen them feeding their young that were scarcely able to fly. 
Their principal food is grass seeds, wild oats, and insects. 
They have no song ; are distinguished by a single chip or 
cheep , uttered in a rather hoarser tone than that of the Song 
Sparrow ; flirt the tail as they fly ; seldom or never take to 
the trees, but skulk from one low bush or swampy thicket to 
another. 
The Swamp Sparrow is five inches and a half long, and 
seven inches and a half in extent ; the back of the neck and 
front are black ; crown, bright bay, bordered with black ; a 
spot of yellowish white between the eye and nostril ; sides of 
the neck and whole breast, dark ash ; chin, white ; a streak of 
black proceeds from the lower mandible, and another from the 
posterior angle of the eye ; back, black, slightly skirted with 
bay ; greater coverts also black, edged with bay ; wings and 
tail, plain brown ; belly and vent, brownish white ; bill, dusky 
above, bluish below ; eyes, hazel ; legs, brown ; claws, strong 
and sharp, for climbing the reeds. The female wants the bay 
on the crown, or has it indistinctly ; over the eye is a line of 
dull white. 
