1456 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 3 



were well feathered and stretched their necks up for food when we 

 parted the grass above the nest at 5:30 p.m. to see if they were still 

 there. They left the nest on the following day. On June 27, when 

 the fledglings were 10 and 11 days old and one day out of the nest, 

 both parents were feeding them, each apparently feeding two young. 

 We heard one of the young the father was looking after utter a high- 

 pitched "zeeee" when fed. 



Most observers who have written about Lincoln's sparrow have 

 emphasized its shy, secretive, mousy, elusive behavior during migra- 

 tion and on the breeding ground. For instance, Audubon (1834) 

 states "we found more wildness in this species than in any other 

 inhabiting the same country " and again "It moves swiftly off when it 

 discovers an enemy; and, if forced to take wing, flies low and rapidly 

 to some considerable distance, jerking its tail as it proceeds, and 

 throwing itself at the foot of the thickest bush it meets." Roberts 

 (1932) calls it: "one of the shyest and most secretive of our 

 Sparrows * * *. It passes by rather quickly in the spring, and, al- 

 though usually common, keeps so well concealed in the thickest 

 undergrowth and matted weeds and grass that only the keenest 

 observers can discover it. It is at this season a silent bird and scurries 

 away over the ground or along fallen tree- trunks with the speed and 

 agility of a mouse, which adds to the difficulty in locating it. Taver- 

 ner says, 'On migration * * * Lincoln's is one of the shyest and most 

 elusive of birds. It skulks in the brush and has reduced concealment 

 to a fine art' (Birds of Western Canada, 1926)." 



On June 6, 1956, we were observing a pair at Dorion, in thin cover 

 which consisted mainly of grass pastured the previous summer and 

 just starting new growth, some low raspberry bushes just coming 

 into leaf, and a small group of three or four spruces not over 3 feet 

 high. We watched steadily from 6:12 a.m. to 6:37 a.m., when the 

 male pounced on the female in the raspberry canes and returned to 

 the spruce. We saw nothing stir from that time until we became 

 restless at the lack of activity at 7:05 a.m. We then searched both 

 the raspberry canes and the spruces, and could flush neither bird 

 yet neither had been seen to leave. We had many similar demon- 

 strations of their almost magical ability to disappear. This facility 

 is due in part, no doubt, to their habit of "mousing off" through the 

 grass instead of flying. Their behavior in their winter quarters, 

 however, appears to differ from that familiar to observers in Canada 

 and the United States. Alexander Wetmore (1944) writes: 



On their wintering grounds these sparrows seem completely at home, and here 

 in Mexico I was able to fully appreciate the statements of E. A. Preble that 

 this species is the song sparrow of the far north. * * * at Tres Zapotes in less than 

 two months I actually learned more of their mannerisms than in 35 years of pre- 



