Wood is one of the necessities of which we never can have too much and I "work it up" whenever a chance offers. Pleasant days in late March find me ahill where the migrant FOX SPARROWS are turning up in company with Purple Finches. Their songs are not unlike altho "Foxy" seems to have a little the better of his ruddy-chested cousins.
I have seen them hardscratching among leaves, cease a moment and give their serenades from the ground. What they say here in New York State is a hint only of the bubbling ecstasy heard in the spruces of Maine where they have come so close to my motionless figure that sparkle of eyes and pulsing throat were plainly seen.
They are not shy, leaving the ground and perching in plain sight, with a rather plaintive she-ep at being disturbed. They are clannish and seldom mingle with other birds; in fact, quite the hidebound aristocrat among Finches.
NEST: built of grass, dead leaves, moss and twigs; lined with fine grass and feathers.
EGGS: 4 to 5; pale bluegreen heavily spotted with chestnut and burnt umber.
North America from tree limit in northeastern Alaska to Newfoundland, south to Ohio and Potomac vallies and to central Texas and northern Florida.
Breeding of this and following subspecies similar to Fox Sparrow.
Unalaska and Shumagin islands, Alaska, south to northern California.
A tree 35 feet high, distributed from Long Island, New York, southward along the coast to Georgia. From northern Alabama thru Tennessee and Kentucky to southern Indiana.