COMMON SONG-SPARROW. 
( Fringilla melodia, Wilson, ii. p. 125. pi. 16. fig. 4. Audubon, 
pi. 25. Orn. Biog. i. p. 123. F. fasciata? Gmel. Phil. Museum, 
No. 6573.) 
Sp. Charact. — Crown chesnut, divided by a greyish line ; breast 
and flanks spotted with blackish-brown ; tail cuneiform, unspot- 
ted ; 1st primary shortest: body above varied with blackish, 
chesnut, and olive-grey. 
This familiar and almost domestic bird is one of the 
most common and numerous Sparrows in the United 
States ; it is, also, with the Blue-Bird, which it seems to 
accompany, one of the two earliest, sweetest, and most 
enduring warblers. Though many pass on to the South- 
ern States at the commencement of winter, yet a few 
seem to brave the colds of New England, as long as the 
snowy waste does not conceal their last resource of nutri- 
ment. When the inundating storm, at length, arrives, 
they no longer, in the sheltering swamps, and borders 
of bushy streams, spend their time in gleaning an insuf- 
ficient subsistence, but in the month of November, begin 
to retire to the warmer states ; and here, on fine days, 
