A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2. Robert Ridgway

      Their nests are constructed in a manner very similar to those of the Chipping Sparrow, loosely made of a few stems of vegetables, grasses, and sedges, and lined with hair or fine rootlets. Those placed on the ground are larger and more bulky, and those wrought into the twigs of a bush are made with more care and neatness of interweaving. The eggs are usually five in number, of an oblong-oval shape. The ground is a whitish clay-color, marked more or less fully with blotches of a ferruginous-brown. In some these markings are few, and arranged only about the larger end. In others they are generally diffused, and impart a deep ferruginous color to the whole egg, and disguise or conceal the ground. They vary also in size,—in length from .70 to .63 of an inch, and in breadth from .52 to .50. Their usual size is .70 by .52.

      Two nests of this bird taken in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, are characteristic of their usual style in architecture. One of these has a diameter of four and a height of two and a half inches. Its base, as well as the great mass of its periphery, is made of a very loose intertwining of minute stems of vegetables and dry grasses. The ends of these project from the exterior of the nest at the upper rim, and present a very peculiar appearance, as of an enclosure of palisades. The interior is lined with horsehair. The other is made of similar materials, of a less rigid character and closer texture. Its rim presents the same peculiarities of projecting ends, arranged like a fence above the nest itself. Its dimensions also are about the same. It is, however, much more compactly constructed, with thicker walls and a less open network of dry grasses, and stiff wiry stems of dried plants intermixed with a few pine leaves. The whole is very carefully and warmly lined with horsehair and the softer fur of small quadrupeds. These nests contained, one three, and the other four eggs.

      Sp. Char. Rump, back of neck, and sides of neck and head, ashy. Interscapular region with black streaks, margined with pale rufous. Crown continuous and uniform chestnut. Forehead black, separated in the middle by white. A white streak over the eye to nape, and a black one from the base of the bill through and behind the eye. Lores dusky. Under parts unspotted whitish, tinged with ashy on the sides and across the upper breast. Tail-feathers and primaries edged with paler, not white. Two narrow white bands across the wing-coverts. Bill black. Length, 5.75; wing, nearly 3.00; tail, 2.50 (or less).

      Young. Immature birds and frequently the adult females with the cap streaked with blackish lines, the chestnut nearly or sometimes quite wanting. Birds of the year streaked beneath and on rump.

      The color of bill varies; sometimes entirely black throughout, sometimes very light (but never reddish as in S. pusilla), with all intermediate stages. There is usually, however, a dusky tinge in the upper bill, wanting in pusilla, and the lores are almost always more or less dusky in all stages of plumage.

      Hab. Eastern Province of North America; north to Great Slave Lake, and south to Orizaba, Eastern Mexico, where it is resident. Oaxaca (perhaps var. arizonæ), Jan. (Scl. 858, 304); Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 305); Cuba (Lawr. 1860, VII., 1269).

      Habits. The common Chipping Sparrow, so familiar to all in the eastern portion of the United States, is not only one of the most abundant, but one of the most widely distributed of our North American birds. It is found from the Atlantic to the Pacific in its two races, and breeds from Georgia to the Arctic Circle. At different seasons of the year it is found in all portions of North America to Mexico. Along the Atlantic coast it nests at least as far north as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; in the extreme northern portion of the latter Province I found it one of the most abundant birds.

      The late Mr. Robert Kennicott met with them in considerable numbers at Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, and there he obtained quite a number of their nests, all of which were in trees or bushes, from two to three feet above the ground. These were all met with between the 1st and the 26th of June. Mr. B. R Ross also met with these birds in considerable numbers at Fort Simpson and at Fort Rae.

      On the Pacific coast the Chipping Sparrow is stated by Dr. Cooper to be quite as abundant in the northern parts of California, and in Oregon and Washington Territory, as on the Atlantic coast. He found them wintering in the Colorado Valley in large numbers, but met with none about San Diego. They spend their summers in the northern part of California, building their nests, as with us, in the shrubbery of the gardens, and coming familiarly about the doorsteps to pick up crumbs. In autumn they collect in large flocks, and frequent the open fields and pastures. Dr. Cooper found them in flocks on Catalina Island in June, but could discover no nests. They were all old birds, and the conclusion was that they had delayed their more northern migrations.

      Dr. Suckley found this species extremely abundant in the open districts on the Columbia River, as well as upon the gravelly prairies of the Puget Sound district. It is not named as having been met with by Mr. Dall or any of the Russian Telegraph party in Alaska.

      It was found in abundance during the summer by Mr. Ridgway in all the wooded portions of the country of the Great Basin. He did not meet with any among the cottonwoods of the river-valleys, its favorite haunts appearing to be the cedars and the nut-pines of the mountains. In July and August, in such localities, on the East Humboldt Mountains, it was not only the most numerous species, but also very abundant, nesting in the trees. About the middle of August they congregated in large numbers, preparing for their departure.

      At Sacramento it was also very abundant among the groves of small oaks. He could not observe the slightest difference in habits or notes between the eastern and the western specimens of this form. He found them breeding at Salt Lake City, June 19, the nest being in a scrub-oak, six feet from the ground.

      In Arizona, Dr. Coues found the Chippy a very abundant summer resident, arriving the third week of March and remaining until the latter part of November. A few may spend the winter there. As described, it seems more gregarious than it is with us, arriving in the spring, and remaining for a month or more in large flocks of fifty or upwards. In New England they always come in pairs, and only assemble in flocks just on the eve of their departure.