388 Birds of Colorado 



eggs, four or five in number, are greenish to gre3rish- 

 white, thickly spotted and blotched with reddish- 

 brown, and varying considerably in marking. They 

 average '70 x "57. 



Two or three broods are often raised in the year. 

 Dille gives May 29th as an average date for fresh eggs 

 near Denver, Gale May 30th at Gold Hill, while Carter 

 found a nest as late as July 5th, probably the 

 second laying. 



Eastern Song-Sparrow. Melospiza melodia. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 581— Colorado Record— Cooke 97, p. 106. 



Description. — Very close to M. m. montana, but rather smaller ; the 

 wing, tail and tarsus averaging less, but the bill distinctly stouter 

 and more swollen ; coloration brighter and less grey. Dimensions of 

 an average male: length 5-85; wing 2-60; tail 2-55; culmen -50; 

 tarsus -82. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, breeding from Manitoba to 

 Virginia and wintering in the northern part of its breeding range and 

 further south ; west to Kansas. 



Cooke identified one out of five Song-Sparrows taken at Fort Lyon 

 by Capt. Thorne as the eastern subspecies. This is the only definite 

 record for Colorado. On the other hand a Song-Sparrow from Argentine 

 in eastern Kansas in the Aiken collection seems rather to belong to 

 M. m. montana. 



Lincoln's Sparrow. Melospiza lincolni. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 583— Colorado Records— Allen 72, pp. 157, 163 ; 

 Trippe 74, p. 136 ; Henshaw 75, p. 283 ; Minot 80, p. 229 ; Drew 81, 

 p. 90 ; 85, p. 16 ; Tresz 81, p. 43 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 189 ; Stone 

 84, p. 20 ; Beckham 85, p. 142 ; 87, p. 125 ; Breninger 87, p. 191 ; 

 Morrison 88, p. 74; Goss 91, p. 473; Cooke 97, pp. 19, 107, 216; 

 McGregor 97, p. 38 ; Henderson 03, p. 236 ; 09, p. 237 ; Gilman 07, 

 p. 157 ; Rockwell 08, p. 173. 



Description. — Male — Above brown, more olive on the back, more 

 chestnut on the head and wings, conspicuously streaked with black ; 

 median crown and superciliary stripes and sides of the neck ashy-grey ; 

 ear-coverts browner, margined above and below by a postocular and 

 rictal streak of black ; band across the chest continued forward to the 

 malar region and backwards to the flanks, pale biiffy ; rest of the 

 under-parts white, streaked with black throughout, except the centre 



