(_Melospiza georgiana_) Finch family
_Called also_: SWAMP SPARROW; MARSH SPARROW; RED GRASS-BIRD;
SWAMP FINCH
_Length_--5 to 5.8 inches. A little smaller than the English
sparrow.
_Male_--Forehead black; crown, which in winter has black
stripes, is always bright bay; line over the eye, sides of the
neck gray. Back brown, striped with various shades. Wing-edges
and tail reddish brown. Mottled gray underneath, inclining to
white on the chin.
_Female_--Without black forehead and stripes on head.
_Range_--North America, from Texas to Labrador.
_Migrations_--April. October. A few winter at the north.
In just such impenetrable retreats as the marsh wrens choose, another
wee brown bird may sometimes be seen springing up from among the
sedges, singing a few sweet notes as it flies and floats above them,
and then suddenly disappearing into the grassy tangle. It is too
small, and its breast is not streaked enough to be a song sparrow,
neither are their songs alike; it has not the wren's peculiarities of
bill and tail. Its bright-bay crown and sparrowy markings finally
identify it. A suggestion of the bird's watery home shows itself in
the liquid quality of its simple, sweet note, stronger and sweeter
than the chippy's, and repeated many times almost like a trill that
seems to trickle from the marsh in a little rivulet of song. The
sweetness is apt to become monotonous to all but the bird itself, that
takes evident delight in its performance. In the spring, when flocks
of swamp sparrows come north, how they enliven the marshes and waste
places! And yet the song, simple as it is, is evidently not uttered
altogether without effort, if the tail-spreading and teetering of the
body after the manner of the ovenbird, are any indications of
exertion.
Nuttall says of these birds: "They thread their devious way with the
same alacrity as the rail, with whom, indeed, they are often
associated in neighborhood. In consequence of this perpetual brushing
through sedge and bushes, their feathers are frequently so worn that
their tails appear almost like those of rats." But the swamp sparrows
frequently belie their name, and, especially in the South, live in dry
fields, worn-out pasture lands with scrubby, weedy patches in them.
They live upon seeds of grasses and berries, but Dr. Abbott has
detected their special fondness for fish--not fresh fish particularly,
but rather such as have lain in the sun for a few days and become dry
as a chip.
Their nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in a tussock of grass or
roots of an upturned tree quite surrounded by water. Four or five
soiled white eggs with reddish-brown spots are laid usually twice in a
season.