Passerella iliaca 
Concord, 
April 5. 
(No. 2). 
1899. 
Nov. 1-11. 
Also 21 , 
23 & 2G. 
Mass. Method of "scratching". 
1398. 
first standing. The forward notion is so very quids, that it 
is apt to escape the eye of, or at least to be misinterpreted 
by, the casual observer and the impression is easily received 
that the bird has merely scratched the leaves, etc. behind it 
after the manner of a hen. But sometimes it does actually 
hick backwards without first hopping forward. Its wings are 
kept tightly closed daring the performance. The feet are 
held nearly parallel but often, I think, one is a little in 
advance of the other. 
A solitary Fox Sparrow, scratching among the leaves in a 
thicket of alder behind Ball's Hill on the 11th, was the only 
bird noted by me at Concord. The migration last spring was 
also very light and I have heard that the number of birds 
breeding in Newfoundland was sadly reduced the past summer. 
All this indicates that the species must have suffered very 
severely in the South last winter ( cf . Wayne's notes on the 
destruction by cold and snow which he witnessed at Charleston* 
S . C . , Auk , XVI , Apr i 1 , 1899, pp . 1 9 7 -8 . ) 
Hi 
