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Range (Eastern North America breeds) (XX)

Eastern North America; breeds locally from Missouri and Virginia northward to New Hampshire and southern Ontario; winters from about the southern limit of its breeding range to the Gulf. Washington, common S. R., Apl. 12 to Oct. Sing Sing, rare T. V., Oct. 5 to Oct. 10. Cambridge, very rare S. R.

Nest, of grasses, sometimes lined with hairs, on the ground. Eggs, four to five, grayish white, thickly and evenly speckled with pale rufous-brown, 75 x 57.

During the summer this species seems to prefer wet meadows, but in the winter it inhabits the dry "old fields" grown with broom sedge. which are so common in the south. It has the secretive habits of the Grasshopper and Leconte's Sparrows, and takes wing only when forced to.

Mr. P. L. Jouy writes of its song: "Besides the characteristic notes of tee-wick, they have quite a song which may be fairly represented by the syllables sis-r-r-rit-srit-srit, with the accent on the first and last FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. parts. This song is often uttered while the bird takes a short flight upward; it then drops down again into the tangled weeds and grasses, where it is almost impossible to follow it" (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vi, 1881, p. 57). 548. Ammodramus lecontei (Aud.). LECONTE'S SPARROW. Ad.- No yellow before the eye or on the bend of the wing; a broad ochraceous-buff line over the eye, and a cream-buff line through the center of the blackish crown; nape rufous-brown, each feather with a small black central spot and an ashy border; back black, the feathers margined first by rufous, then creambuff and whitish; tail grayish brown, with a slight rufous tinge, darker along the shaft; the feathers narrow and sharply pointed, the outer ones much the shortest; breast and sides tinged with buffy, and more or less streaked with black; belly white. L., 5.00; W., 2.00; T., 2.05; B., 35. Range." Great Plains and more western prairies, breeding from Dakota, Minnesota, etc., to Manitoba, migrating southward and eastward, in winter, through Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, etc., to South Carolina, and Gulf States from Florida to Texas" (Ridgw.).

Nest, of fine grasses, on the ground. Eggs, three, delicate pink, lightly spotted with brownish and black near the larger end, 75 x 50 (Thompson). My experience on the coast of Texas with this elusive little Sparrow conforms with that of most observers, and the few specimens I found were in wet marshes. Mr. L. M. Loomis, however, tells us that at Chester, South Carolina, where Leconte's Sparrow is a locally common winter visitant, it shows a marked preference for dry "old fields" of broom sedge (Auk, ii, 1885, p. 190).

Few birds are more difficult to flush. It exhibits a rail-like disinclination to take wing, and, flying low and feebly, makes for the nearest cover. Ernest E. Thompson records it as an abundant summer resident in the willow sloughs and grassy flats of Manitoba, and describes its call-notes as a thin, sharp, ventriloquial tweet, and a single, longdrawn bizz; while its song, which is delivered from some low perch a little above the grass, is a tiny, husky, double-noted reese reese, "so thin a sound and so creaky, that I believe it is usually attributed to a grasshopper." 549. Ammodramus caudacutus (Gmel.). SHARP-TAILED SPAR- ROW. Ad.-General color of the upper parts a brownish olive-green; crown olive-brown, with a blue-gray line through its center; gray ear-coverts, inclosed by ochraceous-buff lines, one of which passes over the eye and one down the side of the throat; feathers of the back margined with grayish and sometimes whitish; bend of the wing yellow; tail-feathers narrow and sharply pointed, the outer feathers much the shortest; breast and sides washed with buffy, paler in summer, and distinctly streaked with black; middle of the throat and belly white or whitish. "L., 5.85; W., 2.30; T., 1.90; B., 50" (Dwight).

FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.