BAIRD'S SPARROW 765 



Early dates of fall arrival are: Arizona — Ash Flat, August 15. 

 New Mexico — Upper Pecos, August 11. Texas — Gainesville, Sep- 

 tember 26. 



Late dates of fall departure are: California — Joshua Tree National 

 Monument, October 3. Montana — Terry, September 10. Wyo- 

 ming — Midwest, September 19. Colorado — Colorado Springs, No- 

 vember 26. Arizona — Rincons, October 24. New Mexico — Gila 

 River, October 16. Saskatchewan — Rosetown, September 7. I^Iani- 

 toba — Treesbank, October 5. North Dakota — Billings County, Octo- 

 ber 21; Union County, October 15. South Dakota — Faulkton, 

 October 15. Nebraska — Holstein, November 8. Oklahoma — Ed- 

 mond, November 24. Texas — Bonham, November 5. Minnesota — 

 Hallock, September 11. Iowa— Grinnell, October 16. Missouri — 

 St. Louis, October 29. 



Egg dates. — Alberta: 5 records, June 9 to June 23. 



Manitoba: 10 records, June 6 to August 11. 



Minnesota: 2 records, June 7 and July 22. 



Montana: 2 records, July 18 and July 20. 



North Dakota: 9 records, June 5 to July 15. 



PASSERHERBULUS CAUDAGUTUS (Latham) 



Le Conte's Sparrow 



PLATE 43 



Contributed by Lawrence H. Walkinshaw 



Habits 



Le Conte's sparrow was described by Latham in 1790 from a speci- 

 men taken in the interior of Georgia. Apparently the species was 

 not recorded again until May 24, 1843, when Audubon collected one 

 along the upper Missouri and named it "after my young friend 

 Doctor Le Conte," a student of natural history. The third known 

 specimen was taken in Washington County, Tex., by Linceceum in 

 1872. Then in the summer of 1873 Elliot Coues (1874) encountered 

 the species in North Dakota between the Turtle Mountains and the 

 Souris River and \\Tote: 



"I only noticed the birds on one occasion, August 0th, when a 

 number were found together in the deep green sea of wa\'ing gi-ass 

 that rolled over an extensive moist depression of the prairie. Five 

 specimens were secured in the course of an hour, not without diffi- 

 culty; for the grass being waist-high, the only chance was a snap 

 shot, as the birds, started at random, flitted in sight for a few seconds; 

 while it was quite as hard to find them when killed." 



Since then the range and distribution of this unobtrusive and 

 elusive httle finch have gradually been worked out, but as yet com- 



