LINCOLN'S SPARROW 1459 



The buffy breast band which also continues down the sides, the narrow 

 and black streaking which is found not only on the breast but on the 

 back and on top of the head, the short tail and the pronounced eye- 

 ring which gives Lincoln's sparrow a characteristically wide-eyed 

 astonished expression enhanced by its tendency to stare at the observer 

 with neck stretched and crest raised, semi-crouched, as if to dash off 

 at the slightest movement. 



The really difficult plumage in which to determine this species with 

 accuracy is the juvenal plumage, as Peterson and others have pointed 

 out, for this plumage very closely resembles that of the juvenal song 

 and swamp sparrows. Peterson, in the account quoted, wrongly 

 states: "The immature Swamp Sparrow in spring migration * * *" 

 is misidentified as Lincoln's. This should read "in autumn migra- 

 tion." James L. Baillie kindly checked the immature swamp sparrows 

 in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum and found that the 

 latest date on which an immature swamp sparrow showed a streaked 

 breast was September 10. After the end of September there should 

 be little cause for confusing swamp with Lincoln's sparrows. 



In late summer and early autumn, however, it is really very difficult 

 to distinguish the juvenals in the field. Wendell Taber wrote us: I 

 am exceedingly skeptical about sight records of Lincoln Sparrows in 

 autumn. I remember, vividly, a sparrow I just could not identify 

 on the shore of a pond in Ipswich many years ago. I went and got 

 my father-in-law, Dr. C. W. Townsend, from his house 200 yards 

 distant. HE couldn't identify the bird. I kept an eye on the bird 

 until Dr. T. could get a gun. The bird was a Swamp Sparrow. But, 

 even in the hand, Dr. T. couldn't identify it until he had spent a good 

 deal of time reading." 



The resemblance of juvenal song and swamp sparrows to Lincoln's 

 is vividly illustrated in Allan Brooks' painting (Plate 72) in Forbush 

 (1929) and his sketch of a juvenal Lincoln's sparrow on page 98 where 

 Forbush writes: "Young: Often indistinguishable in the field from 

 young Song Sparrow, unless by narrowness of dark streaks on either 

 side of throat." 



The crown pattern seems to be a good way for bird banders to 

 distinguish the juvenals of swamp, song, and Lincoln's sparrows. The 

 crown is mostly black, like a black cap, in swamp sparrows. It is 

 brown with no black streaks in song sparrows. In the Lincoln's 

 sparrow the crown is distinctly striped with about six fine black 

 streaks on a brown background with a gray stripe in the center. 



Enemies. — Predatory mammals, chiefly red squirrels, and birds, 

 notably pigeon hawk, sparrow hawk, broad-winged hawk, gray jay, 

 crow, and raven, were observed on or flying over the territories of 

 our nests at Dorion, but the sparrows all survived successfully. The 



