IPSWICH SPARROW 673 



sparrows were very tame, but they flew so fast and low and then ran 

 along tlie sand so far before stopping that they were hard to find 

 without a good dog. "Later comers," he remarks, "were very shy, 

 never allowuig a very near a])pr()ach, but running before the dog for 

 a few yards, would then rise wildly." 



Allan D. Cruickshank (1942) calls the species a common transient 

 visitor hi the New York area, commonest in November during which 

 he had seen "as many as twenty-seven individuals along tlie Jones 

 Beach stretch in a single day." On Nov. 11, 1950, John Mayer of 

 Idlewild and I coimted 10 in a half-mile stretch at Gilgo, also on the 

 Jones Beach stretch. Hurricanes, developments, and road building 

 now cause migrants to pass more rapidly through the rather sterile 

 Jones Beach dune tracts, and during the past few years, smaller num- 

 bers have been observed there. 



One fall day at Jones Beach I watched two Ipswich sparrows allow 

 a large black dog to come within six feet of them in its heedless 

 wandering. The birds' reaction to the dog's approach was to crouch 

 motionless. As the dog moved off, the bu-ds resumed their feeding. 

 When it returned, they again froze. Despite my greatest care, I was 

 unable to approach them nearer than about 25 feet before they 

 flushed. 



On mndless fall days, but generally less so in cold weather, Ipswich 

 spaiTOws may often be approached closely. A group of members of 

 the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club told me that while photo- 

 graphing one on the New Jersey dunes in late fall, they encircled 

 and slowly approached it until they were about six feet away before 

 the bird flew off. G. M. Sutton writes me of a bu-d a group 

 encountered at Moriches, Long Island, in October, that was similarly 

 tame: "At times the half-cu'cle of observers almost closed hi on it, yet 

 it did not fly off in haste. As a rule when it moved on it walked or 

 ran. We all watched the bird for about 20 minutes or more." 



Winter. — With cold winds and wintry weather, the Ipswich sparrow 

 becomes mainly terrestrial, walking, running, and crouching close to 

 the ground as it traverses the blustery sand dunes. At times as 

 it stands back to the wind, the long feathers covering its lesser wing 

 coverts blow out loosely like a partly open cape, and the long upper 

 tail coverts blow in a curve away from its body. As, unheeding, it 

 picks up seeds in some exposed spot, its creeping crouch, short bill, 

 and rounded head are reminiscent of a snow bunting or a longspur. 



In Nova Scotia records of Robie W. Tufts from Queens, Shel- 

 bourne, and Halifax counties show this species a rather uncommon 

 fall and winter visitor. Apparently the bird is also a local winter 

 resident m Maine. Wendell Taber (1952) remarks that he and two 



