LINCOLN'S SPARROW 1437 



William Brewster (1936) made some interesting notes on the ap- 

 pearance of six different Lincoln's sparrows in May 1899 at his October 

 Farm, near Concord, Mass. One bird was of particular interest 

 to him: 



It appeared * * * on the 15th and remained until the forenoon of the 22nd, 

 spending its whole time within or on the outskirts of the thicket of bushes between 

 the smaller cabin and the canoe landing. In a bed of ferns on the edge of this 

 thicket, directly in front of the small cabin and some fifteen feet from the door, 

 we kept a quantity of millet seed scattered about over the ground. This was 

 visited by the Finch at frequent intervals and, no doubt, constituted his chief 

 food supply during his stay. It may have had something to do with the length 

 of his stay, also, but the weather was very cool during this period and a number 

 of other birds stayed in the same thicket for nearly the same length of time. 



The Lincoln's Finch was very shy at first and at all times exceedingly alert and 

 suspicious but he showed a nice and, on the whole, wise discrimination in his judg- 

 ment of different sights and sounds. A keen, intelligent little traveller, evidently, 

 quite alive to the fact that dangers threatened at all times, but too cool-headed 

 and experienced to be subject to the needless and foolish panics which seize upon 

 many of the smaller birds. He soon learned to disregard the movements and 

 noises which we made within the cabin, and the trains thundering by on the other 

 side of the river did not disturb him in the least but if our door was suddenly 

 thrown open or if a footstep was heard approaching along the river path, he at 

 once retreated into the thickets behind the ferns, dodging from bush to bush 

 and keeping behind anything that would serve as a screen until all was quiet 

 again, when he would presently reappear at the edge of the covert and, after a 

 short rcconnaisance, begin feeding again. 



But however busily engaged at the seed, no sight or sound escaped him. If a 

 Chipmunk rustled the dry leaves on the neighboring hillside, he would stand 

 erect and crane his neck, turning his head slowly from side to side to watch and 

 listen. When a Swift, of which there were many flying about, passed close over- 

 head with a sound of rushing wings, the Sparrow would crouch close to the ground 

 and remain motionless for a minute or more. But when nothing occurred to excite 

 his suspicions, he would feed busily and unconcernedly for minutes at a time. 

 Some of the seed had sifted down among the dry leaves and for this he scratched 

 precisely in the manner of the Fox Sparrow, making first a forward hop of about 

 two inches and then a vigorously backward jump and kick which scattered behind 

 him all the leaves that his feet had clutched. In this manner he would quickly 

 clear a considerable space and then devote himself to the uncovered seeds, which 

 he would pick up one b3 r one and roll in his bill after the manner of most Sparrows. 



He was invariably silent when at the seed bed, but within the recesses of his 

 favorite thicket he sang freely at all hours, especially in the morning or early fore- 

 noon or when the sun had just emerged from a cloud. He never sang from the 

 top of a bush like a Song Sparrow but usually from some perch only a yard or so 

 above the ground in the depths of the covert and not infrequently on the ground 

 itself as he rambled from place to place hopping slowly over the dry leaves. 



In 1956 we arrived at Dorion before the Lincoln's sparrows had 

 settled on their nesting territories. May 16, 17, and 18 were cool with 

 northwest winds and showers. Lincoln's sparrows were seen on each 

 of these cool days at Mrs. Rita Taylor's feeding station in Dorion. 

 There they, and various other species of sparrows, had been attracted 



