CHIPPING SPARROW. 
497 
secondaries with pale brown ; the 1st and 2d row of coverts broadly 
edged with bright bay and tipt with ivhite. Tail dusky, forked, more 
than 2J inches long; centre of the belly and vent white. Bill black, 
the under mandible yellow below the tip, f of an inch long. Legs 
dusky brown, feet almost black, and robust. 
CHIPPING SPARROW. 
( Fringilla socialise Wilson, ii.p. 127. pi. 16. fig. 5. Phil. Museum, 
No. 6571.) 
Sp. Charact. — The 4 first primaries nearly of a length; frontlet 
black ; crown chesnut ; chin and line over the eye whitish ; 
breast and sides of the neck, pale ash; bill black; legs and feet 
slender, pale flesh-color ; hind nail shorter than the toe. 
This species, with the Song-Sparrow, is probably the 
most numerous, common, and familiar bird in the Unit- 
ed States ; inhabiting from Labrador to the table land of 
Mexico, and westward to the banks of the Missouri. 
Aware of the many parasitic enemies of the feathered 
race which it has to encounter, who prowl incessantly, 
and particularly in quest of its eggs, it approaches almost 
instinctively the precincts of houses, barns, and stables, 
and frequently ventures into the centre of the noisy and 
bustling city to seek, in the cultivated court, an asylum 
for its expected progeny. Soon sensible of favor or im- 
munity, it often occupies with its nest the thick shrubs 
of the garden within a few yards of the neighbouring 
habitation, by the side perhaps of a frequented walk, in 
the low rose-bush, the lilac, or any other familiar plant 
affording any degree of shelter or security, and will at 
times regularly visit the threshold, the piazza, or farm 
yard for the crumbs which intention or accident may 
afford it. On other occasions, the orchard trees are 
chosen for its habitation, or in the lonely woods, an ever- 
green, cedar, or fir is selected for the purpose. It makes 
no pretensions to song, but merely chips, in complaint, 
42 * 
