PRINGILLID.E — THE FINCHES. 551 



were in great miniljers in all the pine barrens of that State, in light and 

 sandy soil, and in woods bnt thinly overgrown by tall pines. They never 

 alight on trees, but spend their time on the ground, running with great ra- 

 pidity through tlie grass, in the manner of a mouse. 



In Xew Jersey they were found in ploughed fields, where they are pre- 

 sumed to have been overlooked and mistaken for the Yellow-winged Spar- 

 row. Mr. Audubon supposed tliat they were not found farther eastward 

 tlian tliat State. 



Specimens in the Smithsonian iMjlleution have been procured in Georgia 

 in December ; in Maryland in July ; at Fort liiley, Kansas, Southern Illi- 

 nois, and in Nebraska, in June. 



In jNIassaciiusetts they are regular summer ^■isitants, tliough as yet they 

 have been met with in only a lew instances and in a somewhat restricted 

 localit}-. They are now met ^\■ith nearly every year, and several nests have 

 been taken. Mr. Maynard obtained two specimen.s. May 10, in a wet 

 meadow in Xewton. Tlieir song-note he describes as like the syllables see- 

 wick, the first syllable prolonged, the latter given quickly. This bird was 

 first obtained in Berlin, in that State, by Mr. E. S. Wheeler, who discovered 

 its nest and eggs. It was mistaken for Bachman's Finch, and was at first 

 so placed on the record, though the error was immediately corrected. Since 

 tlien, in that town, and in one or two others in its neighborhood, other nests 

 liave been met with. jNIr. William Brewster obtained several specimens in 

 Lexington, May 14, 1872. It is quite probable tliat it lias been confounded 

 with C. ^?ff.s.s(;;7';u(,s, and it is now supposed to be more common in the eastern 

 part of the State than that bird. 



One specimen of this Bunting was taken ne.ar Wasliington, during the 

 summer season, from which circumstance Dr. Cones gives it as an exceed- 

 ingly rare sunnner resident of the District of Columbia. 



In 1871, Mr. Eidgway ascertained that, so far from being rare, Henslow's 

 Bunting is very abundant on the prairies of Southern Illinois, as well as the 

 Yellow-winged species, but far exceeding the latter in numbers. Though 

 entirely similar to that bird in liabits and manners, it may be readily distin- 

 guished by its note, which is said to be an ahnvpt 2nl-luf , much more like the 

 common summer-call of the Siiore Lark than the lisped grassliopper-like 

 chirp of the C. passcrinii.'i, and to be uttered as the bird perclies on the sum- 

 mit of a tall weed, the tail being depressed, and the head thrown back at 

 each utterance. A number of unidentified eggs were sent to me several 

 years since, by I\Ir. Kennicott, from near Cliicago. They resembled some- 

 what the eggs of C. passerinns, but were not the eggs of that species. I 

 have now no doubt they belonged to this bird. 



The nest is built in the ground, in a depression, or apparently an exca\-a- 

 tion scratched out Ijy tlie bird itself, and is a well-made structure of coarse, 

 dry, and soft reeds and grasses, well lined with finer materials of the same 

 descrii)ti(U). The eggs, five or six in number, somewhat resemble those of 



