674 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 37 pam s 



companions watched at length one of these bu-ds at Popham Beach 

 on Feb. 23, 1952: 



The bird was out of habitat, feeding voraciously in the wet seaweed left but 

 a few minutes earlier at high water mark on a sandy beach bordered by cottages. 

 Hunger, apparently, made this bird unusually tame. Once having accepted 

 our presence the bird seemed to ignore almost completely our movements as we 

 walked about to obtain better light and to approach to within perhaps 25 feet 

 or less. More often, one can spend an interminable amount of time attempting 

 to obtain a clear and lengthy look at the species. The bird scurries in rapid order 

 through one clump after another of beach grass in some sandy area close to the 

 sea — and success in one's attempts to obtain more than a fleeting glimpse is far 

 from being a certainty. Such habitat existed a few hundred yards distant — or 

 had existed. The snow storms which placed Portland in a state of "Emergency" 

 had shown no partiality towards Popham and in all probability the habitat had 

 vanished overnight.* * * 



Palmer in "Maine Birds", 1949, supplies at the outside but three winter records. 

 Of these, one is December 6, 1946, by William H. Drury, Jr., who was a member of 

 my party at Popham Beach. I had the misfortune to be elsewhere at the particu- 

 lar moment and failed, myself, to see the bird. The location was about a half-mile 

 distant from that of the subject bird and was in appropriate territory. (Accord- 

 ing to Mrs. Genevieve D. Webb the Ipswich sparrow is a fairly common fall and 

 winter bird at Ocean Park, Maine. Maine Aud. Bull., 8 (3): 51.) 



Sable Island boatman Arthur MacDonald told me of the Ipswich 

 sparrow feeding in the tidal drift in late winter, usually when the strong 

 winds blowing flying sand abated in late afternoon. 



In Rhode Island, Douglas L. Kraus writes: "As you know the 

 Ipswich sparrow is a bird which must be sought hard and my own 

 records are scanty more because of my negligence than a real scarcity. 

 I do know that the hurricanes of 1938 and 1944, as well as the more 

 severe winter storms, have greatly affected the habitat of the Ipswich 

 and certainly reduced the wintering population. The influence of 

 filling, dredging, leveling and building along the R.I. shore is also 

 having a significant adverse effect." He sent me 29 records for that 

 state, many of them February birds, and 5 records for offshore Block 

 Island. 



Distribution 



Range. — Coastal dunes. Nova Scotia to Georgia. 



Breeding range. — The Ipswich sparrow breeds only on Sable Island 

 off Nova Scotia. Reported in recent years in reduced numbers, due 

 probably to decrease in the size of Sable Island through erosion. 



Winter range. — Winters along the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia 

 south to southern Georgia (Cumberland Island); casually north to 

 southern Maine (Old Orchard) and central Nova Scotia (Wolfville). 



Casual records. — Casual inland in Massachusetts (Cambridge) and 

 Connecticut (New Haven, West Haven) and along Chesapeake Bay. 



Migration. — Early dates of spring arrival are: Maine — Cape 



