Plumage loose, blended. Wings very short, the first quill longest. Tail rounded.
Bill dark flesh-colour, brown at the tip. Iris light brown. Feet flesh-colour. General colour of the upper parts very dark olive, the feathers edged with lighter. The inner webs of the quills dark brown. A slender white streak over the eye and close to it; a broad band of black from the eye downwards.
Length 5⅛ inches, extent of wings 6¼; bill along the ridge 5⁄12, along the gap ⅔; tarsus ⅓.
The Swamp Oak.
Quercus aquatica, Water Oak, Mich. Arb. Forest. vol. ii. p. 90. Pl. 17.—Monœcia Polyandria, Linn. Amentaceæ, Juss.
Leaves oblongo-cuneate, tapering at the base, rounded or apiculate, sometimes three-lobed.
THE SONG SPARROW.
Fringilla Melodia, Wils.
PLATE XXV. Male and Female.
The Song Sparrow is one of the most abundant of its tribe in Louisiana, during winter. This abundance is easily accounted for by the circumstance that it rears three broods in the year:—six, five, and three young at each time, making fourteen per annum from a single pair. Supposing a couple to live in health, and enjoy the comforts necessary for the bringing up of their young families, for a period of only ten years, which is a moderate estimate for birds of this class, you will readily conceive how a whole flock of Song Sparrows may in a very short time be produced by them.