Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 179 

 *548. Ammodramus leconteii (Aud.). Leconte's Sparrow. 



Emberiza leconteii. Fringilla caudacuta. Coturniculus leconteii. 



Geog. Dist. — Prairie marshes of Mississippi Valley and Cen- 

 tral British Provinces ; breeding from Minnesota and South Da- 

 kota to Manitoba and Assiniboia. Winters in the Gulf States, 

 Florida to Texas; coast of South Carolina, occasionally North 

 Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, etc. 



In Missouri a regular and locally common transient visitant 

 spring and fall. It is plentiful in the marshes of the Mississippi 

 bottom in the latter part of September, some being still there at 

 the end of December (December 29, 1896, Osprey), but October 

 is the month when it is most numerous. It is again with us 

 from the middle of March (March 14, 1889, male taken by Mr, 

 0. C. Poling at Quincy) to April 20. Possibly also a rare summer 

 resident as it w^as found July 26, 1887, by Mr. Brown, and in 

 immature plumage in August by Mr. PoHng. Mr. Chas. K. 

 Worthen also noted its occurrence in summer near Warsaw. 

 Though most of the records of occurrence are from the Mississippi 

 bottom, the species seems to frequent also the Missouri bottoms, 

 as Mr. Tindall reports it common in migration at Independence. 

 It has been repeatedly met with on stubble fields on hilly ground 

 in St. Louis Co., which belongs to the Ozark border subregion, 

 and is probably not entirely absent in suitable localities of the 

 Ozark region, having been found at Fayetteville, Ark., February 

 28, 1885, impaled by a Shrike. 



[549.1. Ammodramus nelsoni (Allen). Nelson's Sparrow.] 



Ammodramus caudacutus nelsoni. Ammodramus caudacutus. 



Geog. Dist. — Prairie marshes of Mississippi Valley and central 

 British Provinces; breeding from northern Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, South Dakota north to Manitoba. South in winter 

 to Gulf coast; west to Texas, and to coast of South Carolina. 



It is strange that this species has never been noticed within 

 the borders of Missouri, although quite within its geographical 

 range. Its occurrence in migration seems certain. Its capture 

 at Warsaw, May 8, 1879, by Mr. Worthen and at Quincy, April 26, 

 1889, by Mr. Poling is recorded ; also that of an adult male, Octo- 

 ber 12, 1894, in central low^a (Auk, vol. 16, p. 277) ; and that of a 

 pair on May 27, 1904, in Johnson Co., la., by R. M. Anderson, 

 and a young male in company with Leconte's and Grasshopper 

 Sparrow in eastern Nebraska, October 8, 1904. October 17, 



