SP. CHAR. General tint of upper parts rufous and distinctly streaked with rufous-brown, dark-brown, and ashy-gray. The crown is rufous, with a superciliary and median stripe of dull gray, the former lighter; nearly white anteriorly, where it sometimes has a faint shade of yellow, principally in autumn; each feather of the crown with a narrow streak of black forming about six narrow lines. Interscapulars black in the centre, then rufous, then pale grayish on the margin, these three colors on each feather very sharply contrasted. Rump grayer than upper tail-coverts, both with obsolete dark streaks. There is a whitish maxillary stripe, bordered above and below by one of dark rufous-brown, and with another from behind the eye. The under parts are white; the jugulum and sides of body streaked with clear dark-brown, sometimes with a rufous suffusion. On the middle of the breast these marks are rather aggregated so as to form a spot. No distinct white on tail or wings. Length of male, 6.50; wing, 2.58; tail, 3.00. Bill pale brown above; yellowish at base beneath. Legs yellowish.
HAB. Eastern United States to the high Central Plains.
Specimens vary somewhat in having the streaks across the breast more or less sparse, the spot more or less distinct. In autumn the colors are more blended, the light maxillary stripe tinged with yellowish, the edges of the dusky streaks strongly suffused with brownish-rufous.
The young bird has the upper parts paler, the streaks more distinct; the lines on the head scarcely appreciable. The under parts are yellowish; the streaks narrower and more sharply defined dark brown.
As already stated, this species varies more or less from the above description in different parts of North America, its typical races having received specific names, which it is necessary to retain for them as varieties.
HABITS. The common Song Sparrow of eastern North America has an extended range of distribution, and is resident throughout the year in a large part of the area in which it breeds. It nests from about South Carolina north to the British Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick at the east, and to a not well-defined limit in British America. The most northern points to which it has been traced are the plains of the Saskatchewan and the southern shore of Lake Winnepeg, in which latter place Mr. Kennicott found it breeding. It is said by Dr. Coues to breed in South Carolina, and by Mr. Audubon in Louisiana, but I have never seen any of their eggs from any point south of Washington. In winter it is found from Massachusetts, where only a few are observed, to Florida. It is most abundant at this period in North and South Carolina. It is not mentioned in Dr. Gerhardt’s list as being found in Northern Georgia at any season of the year. Mr. Ridgway informs me that it does not breed in Southern Illinois. Its song is not popularly known there, though he has occasionally heard it just before these Sparrows were leaving for the north. This species winters there in company with the _Z. albicollis_ and _Z. leucophrys_, associating with the former, and inhabiting brush-heaps in the clearings.