1458 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 37 part 3 



utters no note while the observers are near the nest, but may begin 

 to scold as they leave. When we flushed the female from the nest 

 on June 18, 1957, when the young were just 1 and 2 days old, she ran 

 through the grass about half way to the forest edge, fluttering part 

 of the way as if she had a broken wing, but was too concealed by the 

 grass to be seen well. She then flew the rest of the way to the forest 

 edge where she emitted the first of several "tit" notes. The male 

 answered with a quiet "tit." This was our only observation of injury 

 feigning by Lincoln's sparrow. 



This nesting female always came to the nest on foot, after mousing 

 along the ditch, but she flew directly from the nest after feeding. She 

 displayed great agitation when we handled the young for weighing and 

 banding, "tif'ing loudly from the forest edge nearby. 



On June 29, 1956, the mother was observed shielding the 5-day-old 

 nestlings from the strong sun, at 12 :25 p.m. 



After the young had left the nest the parental solicitude continued 

 to increase for a few days. On June 28, 1957, when the young were 

 two days out of the nest, the mother scolded within 15 feet of the 

 observer, and in plain sight, from a bare branch of a shrub by the 

 roadside. The quality of the scold note had changed from the very 

 weak "tit" heard early in the season, to the loud "tit," and after the 

 young left the nest it approached the quality of a scolding chipmunk's 

 "cork-pulling" note — -"tot." 



The behavior of the male also changes with the nesting season. He 

 is very inconspicuous during most of the incubation period, generally 

 singing only in the early morning and very spasmodically later in the 

 day. He takes no part in incubation so far as we could determine. 

 When the young hatched we not infrequently saw the male near the 

 nest with food but in both of the 1956 and 1957 nestings, the father 

 was very hesitant actually to go to the nest. After the young were 

 fledged, however, the father became a good provider and appeared to 

 play as active a part as the mother in rearing the young. 



Field marks. — Peterson (1947) writes: 



The Lincoln's Sparrow is a skulker, "afraid of its own shadow," and often hard 

 to glimpse. Like Song Sparrow, with shorter tail; streakings on under parts 

 much finer and often not aggregated into a central spot; best identified by broad 

 band of creamy buff across breast. 



Similar species. — The buffy band and fine breast-streakings distinguish it from 

 most Sparrows except the immature Swamp and Song Sparrows. It is grayer- 

 backed than either, with a more contrastingly striped crown A narrow eye-ring 

 is also quite characteristic. The immature Swamp Sparrow in spring migration 

 is continually misidentified as the Lincoln's Sparrow, but its breast is duller with 

 dull blurry streaks (Lincoln's fine and sharp). In the South the juvenile Pine 

 Woods Sparrow can easily be mistaken for Lincoln's. 



Most of the salient field marks are mentioned in the above account: 



