304 BIRDS—FRINGILLIDA. 
Mr. Read says “a few remain and spend the entire year with us; have 
raised them from the nest.” With the exception that they have been 
found breeding at Calais, Maine, by Mr. Boardman, and the statement of 
Dr. Coues, that it breeds in mountains within our limits, this is the only 
record of its breeding in the United States. 
This is one of the most hardy of all the Sparrows. With us they fre- 
quent willow thickets, shrubbery, and high weeds along the banks of 
streams, and weedy spots on the edges of wosds. Not uncommonly they 
are found in gardens of cities. They are gregarious, sometimes feeding 
in flocks of a hundred. They are scarcely less terrestrial than the Snow 
Sparrow, but take their common name from the habit they have of flying 
from thickets into trees when disturbed. Their common note is a soft 
chirp, and when feeding they frequently utter an exceeding high and 
clear short twitter, like the tinkling of a tiny bell. Before leaving us 
the males sing a rather low but exceeding sweet song. 
The Tree Sparrow nests on the ground or en low bushes; the nest is 
built of fibres of bark and grass, and lined with feathers. The eggs are 
light-green, rather sparsely marked with reddish-brown, and measure 
89 by .65. 
SPIZELLA SOCIALIs (Wils.) Bp. 
Chipping Sparrow. 
Hringilla socialis, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 183%, 164.—RkEapD, Proc. Phila. Acad. 
Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395. 
Spizella socialis, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 366; Reprint, 1e6t, 8; Food of 
Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1574, 566; Reprint, 1375, 6 —LANGDON, Cat. Birds 
of Cin., 1877, 8: Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 175; Reprint, 9. 
Chipping Sparrow, BaLuou, Field and Forest, ili, 1372, 1 6. 
Fringilla secialis, W1LSON, Am. Orn., ii, 1310, 127. 
Spizella socialis, BONAPARTE, List, 1838, 33. 
Adult: bill black; feet pale; crown chestnut, extreme forehead black, a grayish- white 
superciliary line, below this a blackish stripe through eye and over auriculars. Below, 
a variable shade of pale ash, nearly uniform and entirely unmarked; back streaked 
with black, dull bay and grayish-brown; inner secondaries and wing-coverts similarly 
variegated, the tips of the greater and lesser coveris forming whitish bars; rump ashy, 
with slight blackish streaks; ptimaries and tail dusky, with paler edges. Young, with 
crown streaked like the back, the breast and sides thickly streaked with dusky, the bill 
pale brown, and the head lacking definite black. Length, 5-54; wing, about 23; tail 
rather less. 4 
Habitat, Temperate North America from Atlantic to Pacific. 
Abundant summer resident from April to November. Breeds abund- 
antly. Perhaps no bird is more familiar or better known. It rather 
seeks than shuns the society of man, and is especially abundant in cities 
