246 
FRIMGILLA PALUSTRIS. 
the month of March I observed them numerous in the 
lower parts of Georgia, where, according to Mr Abbot, 
they are only winter visitants. They frequent the 
middle of fields more than hedges or thickets; run 
along the ground like a lark, which they also resemble 
in the great breadth of their wings : they are timid 
birds; and rarely approach the farm house. 
Their nest is built on the ground, in a grass or clover 
field, and formed of old withered leaves and dry grass ; 
and lined with hair. The female lays four or five eggs 
of a grayish white. On the first week in May, I found 
one of their nests w r ith four young, from which cir- 
cumstance I think it probable that they raise two or 
more brood in the same season. 
This bird measures five inches and three quarters in 
length, and ten inches and a half in extent ; the upper 
parts are cinereous brown, mottled with deep brown or 
black ; lesser wing-coverts, bright bay, greater, black, 
edged with very pale brown ; wings, dusky, edged with 
brown ; the exterior primary, edged with white ; tail, 
subcuneiform, the outer feather white on the exterior 
edge, and tipt with white, the next tipt and edged for 
half an inch with the same, the rest, dusky, edged with 
pale brown ; bill, dark brown above, paler below ; 
round the eye is a narrow circle of white ; upper part 
of the breast yellowish white, thickly streaked with 
pointed spots of black that pass along the sides ; belly 
and vent, white ; legs and feet, flesh coloured ; third 
wing-feather from the body, nearly as long as the tip of 
the wing when shut. 
I can perceive little or no difference between the 
colours and markings of the male and female. 
163 . FRINGILLA PALUSTRIS, WILSON SWAMP SPARROW. 
WILSON, PLATE XXII. FIG. I. ADULT MALE. 
The history of this obscure and humble species is 
short and uninteresting. Unknown or overlooked by 
the naturalists of Europe, it is now for the first time 
