The White-Throated Sparrow — Finch Family — Fringillidæ
Length: About 6¾ inches.
General Appearance: One of the larger sparrows, with a black and white striped crown, a white throat, and a yellow spot before the eye.
Male and Female: Striped crown, with a narrow white line in the center, a broad black stripe on each side of the white; a broad white stripe over the eye edged with a narrow black line; a yellow spot in front of the eye, and at the outer curve of the wing. Back brown, streaked with black; rump and tail grayish-brown; wings with two white bars; breast gray, becoming whitish on the belly; sides brownish.
Notes: A sharp chip for the alarm-note; low, pleasant twitterings.
Song: A sweet whistle, usually pitched high. It consists of two or three notes that vary considerably. Sometimes the first note is an octave below the second; at other times it is a few tones higher than the second. I heard one recently that sang a perfect monotone as follows: Dee, dee, de′-de-de, de′-de-de, de′-de-de. The song has been interpreted in Massachusetts as
Sam, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody
/
Old /
and the bird is known as the “Peabody Bird.”
Habitat: Hedgerows and thickets along roadsides, in parks, on estates, and in woods.
Range: Eastern and central North America. Breeds from north-central Canada to southern Montana, central Minnesota and Wisconsin, and mountains of northern Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts; winters from Missouri, the Ohio Valley, southern Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, (casually in Maine), south to northeastern Mexico and Florida.