_Spizella passerina passerina. Case 4, Fig. 45; Case 5, Fig. 31_
In summer, the chestnut cap, black bill, and
whitish line over the eye mark the 'Chippy'; but
in the fall and winter the crown is like the back,
the line over the eye is brownish, and the bill is
brown; but the gray rump, shown well in flight, is
a good character the year around. L. 5-1/2.
_Range._ Nests from Georgia and Mississippi to
Canada; winters from South Carolina to the Gulf.
Washington, common S.R., abundant T.V., Mch.
9-Nov. 11, occasionally winters. Ossining, common
S.R., Apl. 5-Nov. 7. Cambridge, abundant S.R.,
Apl. 12-Oct. 25. N. Ohio, abundant S.R., Mch.
23-Oct. 10. Glen Ellyn, not very common S.R., Apl.
5-Nov. 5. SE. Minn., common S.R., Apl. 8-Oct. 26.
The friendly Chippy is the most familiar and domestic of any of our
native Sparrows. He makes tentative visits to our piazzas and, cats
permitting, will take up his residence there, building a neat,
hair-lined nest in the vines or a nearby bush. Unassuming in voice as he
is in manner, his _Chippy-chippy-chippy_, many times repeated,
expresses contentment, even if it does not attain high musical rank.
Madame Chippy has fine taste in eggs, laying, in early May, little blue
gems, beautifully marked with brown or black.