146 THE LINCOLN SPARROW. 



of head and neck and remaining nndcrparts creamy buff, ever3'\vhere marked by 

 elongated and sharply defined black streaks ; usually an abrupt dusky spot on 

 center of breast ; bill blackish above, lighter below, feet brownish. Length about 

 5.75 (146.1): av. of six specimens: wing 2.48 (63); tail 2. 11 (53.6); bill 

 .40 ( 10.2). 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size ; bears general resemblance to Song 

 Sparrow, from which it is clearly distinguished by buft'y chest-band, and liy nar- 

 row, sharp streaks of breast and sides. 



Nesting. — Xcst: much like that of Rusty Song Sparrow, of dried grasses, 

 etc., usually on ground, rarely in bushes. Eijgs: 3 or 4, greenish white spotted 

 and blotched with chestnut and grayish. Av. size, .80 x .58 ( 20.3 x 14.7). Season: 

 June, July : two ( ? ) broods. 



General Range. — North .\merica at large breeding chiefly north of the 

 United States (at least as far as the Yukon Valley) and in the higher parts of 

 the Rockv Mountains and the Cascade-Sierras; south in winter to Panama. 



Range in Washington. — Imperfectly made out — probaljly not rare sjiring 

 and fall migrant, at least west of the Cascades ; found breeding in the Rainier 

 National Park. 



Authorities.— ["Lincoln's Finch." Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), 

 22.] Bowles and Dawson, Auk, XX\'. Oct. 1908, p. 483. 



Specimens. — (U. of W.) Prov. B. 



MODESTY is a beautiftil trait, and, I suppose, if we had always to 

 choose between the brazen arrogance of the English Sparrow and the shy 

 timorousness of this bird-afraid-of-his-shadow, we should feel obliged to 

 accept the latter. But why should a bird of such inconspicuous color steal 

 silently thru our forests and slink along our streams w'ith bated breath as 

 if in mortal dread of the human eye? Are we then such holigloblins? 



Thrice only ha\-e I seen this bird, and then in mirthcrn Ohio. On tlie 

 first occasion two of us followed a twinkling suspicion along a shadowy 

 woodland stream for upwards of a hundred yards. Finally we neared the 

 edge of the woods. There was light ! exposure ! recognition ! ^\'ith an 

 inward groan the flitting shape quitted the last brush-pile and rose twenty 

 feet to a tree-limb. Just an instant — but enough for our purpose — and he 

 had whisked over our heads, hot-wing upon the dusky back trail. That 

 same May day we came upon a little company of these Sparrows halted by 

 the forbidding aspect of Lake Erie, and dallying for the nonce in the dense 

 thickets which skirted a sluggish tributary. Here they skulked like moles, 

 and it was only by patient endeavor that we were able to cut out a single 

 bird and constrain it to intermittent exposure at the edge of the stream. 

 Here, at intervals, from the opposite bank, we eagerly took note of its head- 

 stripes, pale streaked breast, and very demure airs, and listened to snatches 

 of a sweet but very weak song, with which tlie bird favored us in spite of 



