Part 12

Description.—Size and general proportions of English Sparrow; nostrils covered with small, bristly feathers; tail slightly forked. _Adult male_: Head and breast rosy pink, _not purple_, some of the feathers with dusky tips, and a darker streak through the eye; back brownish gray, streaked and suffused with rose-color; wings and tail brownish; belly whitish; sides somewhat streaked with brownish. _Adult female_: Very sparrow-like in appearance, in fact closely resembling a female English Sparrow, but the whitish underparts _heavily streaked with dark brown_. The immature male is much like the female, and this plumage is held through the first nesting season, the subsequent moult leading into the rose-red plumage of the full adult. _Length_: A little over 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A fairly common and regular migrant throughout, from mid-March to mid-May and from September 15 to October 31. As a summer resident it is found only in the northern and mountainous counties, and it is decidedly local as a nesting bird. It is irregular, though at times common, in winter.

Nest.—A neat structure, with wide, full cup, constructed of plant-stems and fibers, lined with finer materials, placed in a conifer, orchard tree, or sapling at from 20 to 40 feet from the ground. _Eggs_: 3 to 5, pale blue, wreathed about the larger end with spots and lines of black.

The lovely Purple Finch is all too little known. It occurs at some time during the year at every locality in Pennsylvania, yet it is not a familiar bird. The song alone should win it wide acclaim as a bird-neighbor, for, delivered from the top of a tree, or from a vine or weed, it is one of the brightest, most varied of our bird melodies and is given with such enthusiasm that we recognize in the singer a canary-like interest in prolonging the performance.

Purple Finches are often seen among the budding branches of a fruit tree, balancing on the slender twigs as they eat buds and capture occasional insects. The females are virtually silent, until they have cause to depart, then they swing off into the air, bound merrily higher and higher above the tree-tops, and make off as they call _tik, tik_ in a characteristic tone. This important call-note should be remembered; it often serves to identify the species when the colors cannot be seen.

In its nesting-range, the song of this Finch is to be heard during all the spring and early summer days. At Pymatuning Swamp, restless males sang almost constantly while their mates assembled nesting materials. An ecstatic flight-song is frequently given when the bright male flutters high into the air and, still singing, descends on trembling wings to the twigs and new leaves.

The Purple Finch’s habit of eating buds and flowers of trees, including valuable orchard varieties, causes it to be unpopular when it is too common.

RED OR AMERICAN CROSSBILL _Loxia curvirostra pusilla_ Gloger

Description.—Size and general shape of English Sparrow, but mandibles sharply pointed and _crossed_. _Adult male_: Deep dull red, brightest on rump, browner on back; wings and tail brownish black. _Female_: Dull olive-green, yellowish on the rump; head and back indistinctly streaked with blackish; underparts mixed with whitish. _Immature male_: Like the female, with some red mixed in the plumage. _Length_: 6 inches.

WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL _Loxia leucoptera_ Gmelin

Description.—Size and shape of English Sparrow. _Male_: Dull rose-pink, brightest on rump, more or less streaked with blackish on back; wings and tail black, the wings with _two prominent white bars_, the tertials sometimes tipped with white; belly and under tail-coverts whitish. _Female_: Dull grayish green, yellowish on the rump, grayish below, the wings, as in the male, with two prominent white bars. _Immature male_: Similar to the female, but mottled irregularly with pink. _Length_: 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—Both Crossbills are irregular winter visitors, sometimes abundant. They are usually found among coniferous trees. The Red Crossbill nests rarely in our higher mountains among the coniferous trees.

These two species are nearly always to be found together during winter, and in any plumage may be recognized by their wings, those of the White-winged species _always_ having two wing-bars, those of the Red Crossbill never being marked. The Crossbills feed upon seeds of hemlock, pine, and spruce, which they secure by wrenching off the scales of the cones with their sharply pointed and crossed beaks.

REDPOLL _Acanthis linaria linaria_ (Linnæus)

Description.—Smaller than an English Sparrow; conical bill, sharply pointed; nostrils covered with tufts of bristling feathers. _Adult male_: Crown bright red; chin and upper throat blackish; neck and back grayish brown, streaked with buffy and whitish; rump grayish, tinged with pink; wings and tail dark brown, the wings with two white bars; breast and cheeks washed with delicate rosy pink; belly white; sides buffy streaked with blackish. _Female_: Similar, but more heavily streaked above and without pink on breast or rump. _Length_: 5 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rare and irregular winter visitor from the Far North. It sometimes occurs during the entire winter, but it is usually seen during the latter part, and chiefly in the northern counties.

Redpolls, like Goldfinches, swing about through the air with strongly undulating flight. They give a rasping, querulous squeal as they lift their crests and watch us. The birds are fond of weed seeds which they pick up from the snow. Usually they sit with feathers considerably fluffed out, and at such times the rosy breast of the male is noticeable.

GOLDFINCH _Astragalinus tristis tristis_ (Linnæus)

Other Names.—Salad Bird; Wild Canary; Thistle Bird; Yellow Bird.

Description.—Smaller than English Sparrow; bill sharply pointed. _Adult male in summer_: Bright lemon-yellow with black crown, wings, and tail, the wings crossed with two white bars, the lesser coverts yellow like the body, and the tail-feathers with their inner webs white; upper tail-coverts gray. _Adult female in summer_: Upperparts yellowish brown, the crown unmarked; below, dull yellowish; wings and tail more or less as in male, but not so black, nor so strikingly marked; lesser coverts dull olive-green. _Adult male in winter_: Like adult female, but _lesser wing-coverts yellow_; breast dull yellow; belly whitish; sides brownish. _Young male in winter_: Similar but the _lesser wing-coverts are dull greenish or grayish_. _Young males in summer_: Like the adult but the lesser coverts are dull greenish or grayish. _Length_: 5 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common permanent resident, somewhat irregular in winter, and often not known as a winter bird because of the complete change of color and habits.

Nest.—A compact, neatly built cup of weed-stalks and vegetable fiber, lined with soft materials, placed from 3 to 30 feet from the ground, often in a shade tree, on a branch extending over the highway. _Eggs_: 3 to 6, pale blue.

The Goldfinch is comparatively unknown as a winter bird. With the change of color the birds become wilder in disposition, no longer frequent the lawns and roadsides, and band together in large flocks. In summer the brightly colored males are very noticeable as they swing about among the flowers in a field or perch on dandelions in the yard. They are brilliant singers, even in winter, and may be recognized at a great distance in the summer by the flight-song, which has been written _per-chick-o-ree_, and which is repeated with each bound of the deeply undulating flight.

This bird nests very late, eggs being laid in latter June and July. In spring they are sometimes considerably mottled in appearance, as the brown winter plumage drops out and is replaced by the yellow of summer. This prenuptial moult is usually complete by the middle of May, or earlier, and with the brighter plumage return all the familiar call-notes and graceful motions which we associate with these attractive birds.

Goldfinches are fond of sunflower and cosmos seed, and we may lure them to the garden, perhaps for the entire year, by planting such flowers as these regularly.

PINE SISKIN _Spinus pinus pinus_ (Wilson)

Other Name.—Pine Finch.

Description.—Smaller than English Sparrow; bill sharply pointed; a tuft of small feathers over nostril. Upperparts grayish brown streaked with black, the feathers margined with buffy; wing-feathers edged with yellowish and _yellow at base_; tail dark gray-brown, neatly forked, all but middle feathers _yellow at base_; underparts white, washed with buffy and heavily streaked with black. _Length_: 5 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A somewhat irregular migrant in April and May and in September and October; sometimes very common. Irregularly abundant in winter. It has been known to nest in the mountainous counties.

When winter flocks of these sociable finches visit Pennsylvania, the birds feed largely upon the seeds of hemlock and alder. Merrily they bound about through the air, giving their rough, querulous squeal. In looking for this bird, remember that the heavily streaked underparts and the yellow on the wings and tail are unmistakable. Siskins will sometimes be found feeding among the alders, not far from the ground. They often wander about with flocks of Goldfinches.

ENGLISH SPARROW _Passer domesticus_ (Linnæus)

Other Names.—Sparrow; House Sparrow.

Description.—_Male_: Chin and throat black; crown gray; cheeks whitish; back of head, neck, and back reddish brown, the back streaked with black; a prominent white wing-bar; underparts grayish white; wings and tail dull brown. _Female_: Grayish brown, with an indistinct wing-bar, a darker line through the eye, and a rather distinct superciliary line. _Length_: About 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—An abundant permanent resident, principally in the towns and on the farms.

Nest.—A bulky mass of dry grasses, usually domed over and lined warmly with feathers, placed in crevices in buildings, in bird-houses, in cavities in trees, and rather rarely on a branch of a tree. _Eggs_: 4 to 6, white, spotted with gray.

The amateur bird student may do well to fix definitely in his mind the size and appearance of this abundant bird, since it is advisable to know these when making the acquaintance of other bird friends, and especially when studying the rather difficult sparrow group.

English Sparrows are not altogether objectionable. During summer they prey upon almost all kinds of insects, including the hard-shelled and disagreeably scented insects which many birds pass by. Nevertheless, we regret that these birds are so abundant because of their tendency toward driving out some of our more beautiful native birds.

SNOW BUNTING _Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis_ (Linnæus)

Other Names.—Snowflake; Snow Bird.

Description.—A little larger than an English Sparrow. _Male in winter_: Upperparts dull reddish brown, darkest on the crown; feathers of back with partly concealed black bases, causing a streaked effect; outer primaries black, _white at base; secondaries white_; middle tail-feathers black, outer ones white; underparts white. _Female_: Similar, but duller, and with primaries all dark brown, and white secondaries somewhat tipped with dusky. _Length_: 6¾ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rare and irregular winter visitant, save at Erie, where it is fairly regular and sometimes common on the outer beaches from November to early March. It is occasionally seen in small flocks in other northern counties.

A single Snow Bunting in flight might suggest to the bird student an albinistic sparrow of some sort, but a whole flock of the remarkably colored creatures, as they swing over a dead weed-field, can but bring the instantaneous thrill which a glimpse of such exotic creatures always brings. Snow Buntings are usually seen in flocks, often in company with Horned Larks or Tree Sparrows, their companions in the North Country, and they have a jovial twitter.

The Lapland Longspur (_Calcarius lapponicus lapponicus_) occurs rarely during early spring or late fall migration, or in winter. It is about the size of an English Sparrow, and in winter has a concealed reddish patch on the neck, a concealed blackish belly, and is to be seen in fields where it sometimes associates with Snow Buntings, Horned Larks, or Tree Sparrows.

VESPER SPARROW _Poœcetes gramineus gramineus_ (Gmelin)

Other Names.—Grass Finch; Grass or Ground Sparrow; Bay-winged Bunting; Road Sparrow.

Description.—Size of English Sparrow. General appearance grayish above, lighter below, considerably streaked above and on breast and sides; outer tail-feathers white; lesser wing-coverts reddish brown, not particularly conspicuous save at close range. _Length_: 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common summer resident from early April to late October. It is not found in woodlands.

Nest.—A cup in the ground, in an open field, lined with grasses, hair, and other fine material. _Eggs_: 3 to 5, white, spotted and scrawled, chiefly at larger end, with blackish.

The Vesper Sparrow is not very easily recognized by its appearance alone, as it stands on the ground or on a fence-post, but if the bird student will remember that this species is always found in the open, never at great distance from the ground, and that the _white outer tail-feathers always show in flight_, identification should be easy. The bright song is given with great enthusiasm, often in a remarkably beautiful evening chorus. At the beginning of this song we usually hear two accented descending whistles which stand out more prominently than any other portion of the warbling performance. Look for Vesper Sparrows along fields and roadsides in country districts.

SAVANNAH SPARROW _Passerculus sandwichensis savanna_ (Wilson)

Description.—Smaller than English Sparrow. General appearance above, gray, considerably streaked, and with white underparts considerably streaked on breast and sides with black; line above eye pale _yellow_, not noticeable in field save at close range in ideal light; a blotch of blackish in middle of breast. _Length_: 5½ inches

Range in Pennsylvania.—A fairly common but not often recorded migrant, and a local and sometimes common summer resident, particularly in the central and northern counties, from early April to mid-October.

Nest.—A depression in the ground, in an open field, lined with grasses and other soft material. _Eggs_: 4 to 6, pale bluish or bluish green, irregularly and sometimes heavily spotted with brown.

Look for the Savannah Sparrow in spring and summer only in wide, open fields where the grass is short. Here a slight, buzzing, trilling song may be heard from a sparrow which is _prominently streaked below_, and which has much the appearance of a Song Sparrow, but does not bob its tail as it flies, nor seek cover in bushes. If the bird student will remember that this species is to be found only in wide fields, usually when there are no bushes, and that there are no prominently white outer tail-feathers, as in the Vesper Sparrow, he may find this little-known bird fairly common in his region. In fall it is found in weed-patches along roads or in bushy fields. (See illustration, page 109.)

GRASSHOPPER SPARROW _Ammodramus savannarum australis_ Maynard

Other Names.—Yellow-winged Sparrow; Yellow-winged Bunting.

Description.—Smaller than English Sparrow. Tail-feathers rather short and pointed. _Adult male_: General color buffy brown, the upperparts streaked with black and margined with whitish, in characteristic pattern; bend of the wing yellow (this mark usually not evident in the field); forepart of superciliary line yellow, noticeable in good light in the field. _Female_: Similar, but duller. _Length_: 5½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rather local summer resident throughout, from late April or early May to September 15. It is found only in more or less flat, wide meadows, not usually in marshy places, and never in woodlands.

Nest.—A depression in the ground beneath a clump of grass, lined with fine, dry grasses. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, white, spotted, chiefly around the larger end, with reddish brown.

Here is a bird which will more than likely pass unnoticed unless the fine, insect-like song is heard. Some bird students never realize that this species nests in their region, for they never hear this song, and they have not the patience to trail about after every little brown bird they see. The Grasshopper Sparrow’s song is dry, unmusical, and buzzing, and it seems a fitting accompaniment to hot midsummer fields which are covered with dust and upgrown with coarse weeds. The bird is almost never seen, save while it is singing from the top of a weed or from a fence-post. On the ground it disappears almost at once, for its colors are highly protective. The flight is fluttering and somewhat erratic. If the bird flushes from the grass, it usually does not alight near at hand, but zigzags to a far corner of the field and drops into the grass.

The smaller Henslow’s Sparrow (_Nemospiza henslowii susurrans_) has a greenish cast over the head and neck. This retiring, unmusical little bird occurs in Pennsylvania as a very rare and exceedingly local summer resident. Its ludicrously short song, _chis-lick_, is to be listened for in low meadows where the grass is thick and deep. Additional records of this species are very desirable.

The Nelson’s Sparrow (_Ammospiza caudacuta nelsoni_) occurs at Erie as a migrant, particularly in the fall.

WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW _Zonotrichia leucophrys_ (J. R. Forster)

Description.—One of the larger sparrows, being larger than an English Sparrow. _Adult male_: Crown white, with two broad black streaks along either side and a blackish streak through eye; rest of upperparts grayish brown, considerably streaked; underparts clear light gray, palest on throat and belly, and somewhat brownish on sides. _Adult female_: Similar, but duller. _Immature_: Similar, but crown buffy and brown, and underparts more buffy. _Length_: A little under 7 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A regular and fairly common migrant throughout from latter April to May 20 and from October 1 to 20.

The large size and noticeable markings of this sparrow make it comparatively easy to identify. It is not often so common as its near and similar relative, the White-throated Sparrow, from which it differs in having no yellow before the eye or on the bend of the wing, and _no white throat-patch_. The song of the White-crowned Sparrow is composed of soft, rich whistles which have a plaintive character, similar to that of the well-known White-throat’s _peabody_ song, with an additional rough undertone between the first and latter parts of the song. The White-crown, while in Pennsylvania, nearly always occurs in flocks, usually in the woodlands, in brush-piles, or along hedges. _Remember that a bird with a white crown need not necessarily be this species_, for the White-throat also has such a crown; but the plain gray throat of the White-crown is usually easy to detect in the field, since the birds are not wild. All members of the sparrow tribe are seed eaters.

WHITE-THROATED SPARROW _Zonotrichia albicollis_ (Gmelin)

Other Name.—Peabody-bird.

Description.—A little larger than an English Sparrow; similar in general appearance to the White-crowned Sparrow. _Adult male_: Crown white, marked laterally with two black bands which extend backward to nape; forepart of superciliary line _yellow_; rest of upperparts rich brown, streaked with black and margined with grayish; bend of wing yellow, _not usually noticeable in field_; chin and throat pure white, in contrast with gray of breast; belly whitish; sides washed with brownish. _Female and young_: Similar but duller. _Length_: 6½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A regular and abundant migrant throughout, from mid-April to May 20 and from September 15 to November 1.

The clear, fragile whistle of the White-throat is one of our most beautiful bird-notes, and is a familiar song of the spring woodlands. It has been written as _sweet, sweet, peabody, peabody, peabody_. The white throat and yellow spot in front of the eye must be looked for in this species. A trained observer can recognize the White-throat easily by its characteristic, rather metallic, call-note, but the beginner had best depend on the markings of the bird which are easy to note. Sometimes these birds are common about lawns in towns.

TREE SPARROW _Spizella arborea arborea_ (Wilson)

Description.—About as long as, but slenderer than, an English Sparrow; tail longer proportionately than an English Sparrow’s. Crown-patch bright rufous; rest of upperparts brownish gray, streaked with black and reddish brown; wing with two noticeable white wing bars; underparts brownish gray, whitish on chin and throat, and in middle of belly; a dusky spot in center of breast. _Female_: Similar but duller. _Bill yellow with dusky tip._ _Length_: About 6 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A winter visitant from the Far North, arriving in October and remaining until late March or April.

The Tree Sparrow is a bird of weedy fields and hedges. In flocks they search for seeds which have fallen upon the snow. When the winter sun shines they call in companionable and softly musical notes. In spring the Tree Sparrow has a gay, somewhat warbler-like song, which I believe is not very well known among our bird students. The Tree, Field, and Chipping Sparrows are similar in appearance. Identification of these birds should not be difficult, however, if one remembers that the Tree Sparrow is a _winter_ bird, while the Field and Chipping Sparrows usually arrive in spring after the Tree Sparrows have returned north. If by some chance the three sparrows do occur together, remember the black spot in the breast of the Tree Sparrow and the yellowish bill, field-marks which the other two species do not have.

CHIPPING SPARROW _Spizella passerina passerina_ (Bechstein)

Other Name.—Chippy.

Description.—A small, slender Sparrow, noticeably smaller than the English Sparrow. _Male_: Crown bright reddish brown; forepart of crown and line through eye black; line above eye whitish; rest of upperparts grayish brown, streaked with black; chin and throat white; rest of underparts grayish; _bill black_. _Female_: Similar, but duller. In winter both sexes are similar but they are much more streaked, particularly on the crown. _Length_: Under 5½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—An abundant summer resident from early April to mid-October.

Nest.—A neat cup made of fine weed-stalks and grasses, lined almost invariably with horse-hair, and placed in a low bush or rose vine, or sometimes at some distance from the ground in an evergreen tree. _Eggs_: 3 or 4, delicate blue, wreathed about the larger end with black spots and scrawls.