LINCOLN'S SPARROW 1457 



vious observations. Here instead of being shy skulkers that never left the dense 

 shelter of weeds and shrubbery, their habit in migration, they came out like song 

 sparrows to feed around the borders of the little clearing that we had made about 

 our camp. At any time of the day if all was peaceful I had only to raise my 

 eyes to see one or two feeding quietly on the ground, sometimes only 15 feet 

 away. They pecked steadily at the earth, often scratching in typical finch 

 fashion by jumping forward and then back, dragging the forward claws on the 

 earth on the return, and then feeding again in the soil disturbed by this action. 

 Others remained under the thin screen of leaves of the bordering shrubbery, 

 and sometimes I found them running along on the earth in the protecting shelter 

 of cornfields. When alarmed they retreated instantly to cover, where sometimes 

 I heard them scolding sharply, the notes being suggestive of those of the swamp 

 sparrow. I saw one driving petulantly at a little blue-black grassquit (Volalinia 

 jacarina atronilens) that came too near. At dusk sometimes several came down 

 from a weed grown field back of camp to roost in or near dense clumps of bushes. 

 The daily appearance of this bird is to me one of the many pleasant memories 

 of my work in this interesting locality. 



So far as we have been able to determine, the Lincoln's sparrow 

 hops and never, or rarely, walks. It seldom ventures far from cover, 

 into which it retreats with amazing speed at the least sign of dis- 

 turbance, crouching low and hopping so fast as to appear a mere 

 streak of brown. 



The nervous side-to-side tail-twitching so characteristic of agitated 

 song sparrows is not customary for Lincoln's sparrows, which instead 

 tend to crouch with neck outstretched and crest raised, muttering 

 "tit — tit," followed by one of their celebrated exits. 



The flight behavior of this species, at least near the nest, appears 

 to be characterized by a fluttering directness rather than the bouncy 

 flight of some fringillids. The females noted at Dorion during their 

 foraging expeditions merely skimmed the tops of the low vegetation. 

 Compared with the tail-pumping action of a song sparrow in flight, 

 the Lincoln's sparrow's normal flight seems much more purposeful 

 and direct. 



On June 6, 1956, we watched a rather bedraggled, wet female 

 perched in a little spruce energetically preening herself, concentrating 

 on the upper breast with its characteristic buffy band. As this was 

 a fine sunny morning with little dew, she had no doubt just come from 

 a bath in the nearby creek edge. The male was seen preening in the 

 same tree on the following morning, again concentrating on its upper 

 breast as well as the base of the tail behind the wings. Our field notes 

 for June 7, 1956, say: "Scratches behind both ears with both feet." 

 Our notes for June 27, 1956, comment on the "very fast preening" of 

 a parent that had just fed its young in the nest. "Not only does it 

 use its beak in preening, but the feet come into play to scratch areas 

 not easily reached with its bill." 



The behavior of the female changes noticeably in the course of the 

 breeding season. When flushed from a nest with eggs she usually 



