LAND BIRDS. 499 



feathers broadly white-tipped, combine to mark this sparrow unmistakably. 



Distribution. — Southern Ontario and Mississippi Valley region, from 

 Ohio, IlHnois and Michigan to the Plains, south to eastern Texas and 

 northwestern Alabama. Accidental near the Atlantic coast. 



This is a prairie sparrow which is said to have invaded Michigan from 

 the west during the last thirty years, but which is just as likely to have 



been here in small numbers from time im- 



memorial, extending its area, however, as the /■ff'. 



woods were removed and the country came ^ ^^ 

 under cultivation. ^' --^ 



It is nowhere abundant in Michigan, but it 

 is not rare as a summer resident in certain 

 localities, although even there its numbers 

 vary greatly from year to year. We have 

 numerous records from Wayne, Washtenaw, pig. us. i,ark sparrow. Re- 

 Monroe, Lenawee, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent printed from aiapman's Handbook 



, f-, ' „, . ',. ,, . , , ,1 1 IP of the Birds of Eastern North Amer- 



and fet. Ciair counties, all m the southern halt ica, bv courtesy of d. Appieton & 

 of the state. The bird must be very local in ^"o"^p^">'- 

 its distribution, for the writer has sought for it carefully but unsuccessfully 

 in Oakland, Genesee, Livingston, Eaton, Clinton and Ingham counties, in 

 territory apparently just as favorable as the localities in Jackson, Washtenaw 

 and Lenawee counties where it has been found. It is listed as common at 

 Marquette, on the south shore of Lake Superior, by Miss Mowbray, although 

 no specimens were taken, and it has not been found there by other observers. 

 In the summer of 1906 Mr. W. M. Wolfe reported the Lark Sparrow nesting 

 near Beulah, Benzie county. He writes : " With the Lark Sparrow I am fairly 

 familiar, as with the Cardinal. It did not nest in the timber, but in the 

 brush that grows abundantly on the wide beach of Cr3\stal Lake. The eggs 

 were characteristic. Its note led to its identification." With these two ex- 

 ceptions it has not been found north of a line through Grand Rapids and 

 Port Huron, but since it ranges north to Manitoba, and is by no means un- 

 common over a large part of Minnesota, it is not improbable that it may 

 yet be found in numbers in parts of the western half of the Upper Peninsula. 

 Professor A. J. Cook recorded it from the Agricultural College (Birds of 

 Michigan, 2d ed., 1893, p. 113), but we have been unable to find on what 

 authority, and certainly it has not been seen there during the past eighteen 

 years. 



In its habits and song it much resembles the Vesper Sparrow, and 

 frequents similar open pasture lands, roadsides, and cultivated fields along 

 the edges of orchards and woods. Ridgway speaks of its song in Illinois 

 as resembling that of the Indigo-bird, but louder, clearer and more metallic. 

 Its marked colors, and particularly the white in the tail, which invariably 

 suggests the Mourning Dove, render it conspicuous wherever it occurs 

 and it is not likely to be overlooked. 



While it feeds mainly on seeds of grasses and weeds, it also eats many 

 insects, particularly grasshoppers. 



It appears to nest wherever found. Mr. Mark B. Mills records a nest 

 with five eggs at Macon, Lenawee county, April 20, 1896, and Mr. Trombley 

 took three eggs at Summerfield, Monroe county. May 7, 1889. We have 

 a set of five eggs in our College collection taken by L. Whitney Watkins 

 at Fairview Farms, Jackson county. May 20, 1896. The nest is most often 

 placed directly on the ground, more rarely in a low bush, and is built of 

 grasses and weed-stalks, and lined with various fibrous materials, usually 



