462 
GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 
level fields, building their nests on the ground, chiefly 
of fine withered grass. The eggs are 5 and white, with 
specks and lines of dark brown or blackish. They also 
inhabit the prairies of Missouri, the state of New York, 
the remote northern regions of Hudson’s Bay, and are 
not uncommon in this part of New England, dwelling 
here, however, almost exclusively in the high, fresh mead- 
ows near the salt marshes. Their song, simple and mo- 
notonous, according to Wilson, consists only of five notes, 
or rather two ; the first being repeated twice and slowly, 
the second thrice and rapidly, resembling ishsp tship , tshe 
tshe tshe * ; with us their call is 5 tic y tic — tshe tshe tshe 
tship , and tship tship , tshe tshe tshe tship. From their ar- 
rival nearly to their departure, or for two or three months, 
this note is perpetually heard from every level field of grain 
or grass ; both sexes also often mount to the top of some 
low tree of the orchard or meadow, and there continue to 
cherup forth in unison their simple ditty for an hour at 
a time. While thus engaged, they may be nearly ap- 
proached without exhibiting any appearance of alarm or 
suspicion, and though the species appears to be numer- 
ous, they live in harmony, and rarely display any hos- 
tility to the birds around them or amongst each other. 
In August they become mute, and about the beginning 
of September depart for the South, wintering probably 
in some part of Mexico, as they are not seen in the 
Southern States at any period of the winter. Their food 
consists of seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel, and in the 
early part of summer, they subsist much upon caterpillars 
and small coleopterous insects ; they are, also, one among 
the many usual destroyers of the ruinous canker-worm. 
This species is about 6 inches in length. The upper part of the 
head is of a dusky greenish-yellow ; the neck dark ash ; inside 
* This note, I believe, more properly belongs to the Grass Finch. 
