Melospiza georgiana
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Adult in summer.— Crown rich reddish-brown, blackish on the forehead; back brown, streaked with black; wings reddish-brown; breast and sides of throat ashy gray, unstreaked; throat whitish; flanks washed with brownish.
Adult in winter and Immature.— Crown streaked with black and reddish-brown.
Nest, on the ground.
Eggs, whitish, thickly covered with brownish markings.
The Swamp Sparrow breeds in any extensive grassy swamp throughout New England and the Hudson Valley, arriving early in April, and remaining through October. Along the sea-coast of southern New England and New York, where the winter is not very severe, it occasionally winters in the edges of the cat-tail swamps. In migration, especially in September and early October, when Swamp Sparrows are often abundant, they may occur at some distance from swamps or wet meadows.
The song of the Swamp Sparrow is simple but musical, as if a Chipping Sparrow were singing in the marshes an unusually sweet song. Toward evening the birds make many little twittering and scolding sounds, as they pursue each other to and from. The call-note is a metallic chink, resembling that of the White-throated Sparrow, but a little less heavy.
In spring the chestnut crown and reddish-brown of the wings, without white bars, distinguish the Swamp Sparrow from all but the Chipping Sparrow; the latter, however, never resorts to the wet swamp lands and has a more slender, less stocky figure. In the fall the unstreaked breast distinguishes it from the Song Sparrows which abound in the swamps at that season. The Swamp Sparrow has a square whitish throat-patch, but it is far less conspicuous than the pure white throat of the White-Throated Sparrow; the latter moreover may readily be distinguished by its greater size and the black and white head markings.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)