314 NOTES ON THE 



five, but Mr. Samuels records one instance in which there were 

 nine. They are pure white, speckled with reddish -brown, 

 principally around the larger end. They arrive in this section 

 about the 10th of May and bring out the first of their two 

 broods about the middle of June. They leave the State, so 

 far as I have been able to determine, about the first of October, 

 although an occasional individual may linger still later. I 

 found it in Grant county in considerable numbers as late as the 

 time mentioned. It was on high and dry prairies. Mr. Wash- 

 burn reports it in company with the Sharp-tailed Finch in the 

 Red river valley about the first of September. Its character- 

 istic song to my ears bears no other comparison than to a sound 

 produced by running the finger nail rather deliberately over 

 the tense teeth of a large fine-toothed comb, five or six times 

 in succession. It also has a rather weak chirp when unem- 

 ployed in this humble song. Some persons mention an almost 

 invariable warble as preluding the song-strains, but I have 

 never detected it with sufficient certainty to record it. 



Note. — Mr. Washburn remarks in his note upon this 

 species: — "Frequently heard; and one specimen secured in 

 Norman county, August 4th, measuring 4.75; 2.00; 2.00. The 

 peculiar chirping, grasshopper like note of this species, fitly 

 compared by Dr. Hatch to the sound made by drawing the 

 point of a knife across the teeth of a fine-toothed comb, is 

 very deceptive. In August the note is short and rarely given; 

 and when it is given, is so low that unless one is a very quick 

 observer he cannot determine the locality of the bird's perch." 



SPECIFIC characters. 



Feathers of upper parts brownish -rufous, margined nar- 

 rowly and abruptly with ash color, reddish on the lower part 

 of back and rump; feathers all abruptly black in the central 

 portion; this color visible on the interscapular region where 

 the rufous is more restricted; crown blackish, with a central 

 and superciliary stripe of yellowish, tinged with brown, 

 brightest in front of the eye; bend of wing bright yellow; 

 lesser coverts tinged with greenish yellow; quills and tail 

 feathers edged with whitish; tertiaries much variegated; 

 lower parts brownish-yellow, nearly white on the middle of 

 the belly; feathers of the upper breast and sides of body with 

 obsolete darker centres. 



Length, 5; wing, 2.40; tail, 2. 



Habitat, eastern United States and southern Canada to the 

 Plains. 



