768 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



April 28, with earliest dates of April 6 (1929) and April 8 (1921). 

 C. Stuart Houston and Maurice G. Street (1959) give the earliest 

 arrival date at Nipawin, Saskatchewan, as Apr. 30, 1943, and the 

 average May 5. Most Saskatchewan observers find May 10 to 26 as 

 the date of first observance. Bernard W. Baker and I (1946) saw 

 the first birds at Fawcett, Alberta, during the spring of 1942 on May 22. 

 Nesting. — The nest of Le Conte's sparrow somewhat resembles that 

 of Henslow's sparrow. It is built on or slightly above the ground in 

 the drier borders of open marshes beneath tangles of old dead rushes, 

 grasses, or sedges. It is so weU concealed that it is extremely diflSicult 

 to find; in fact, probably no more than 50 have ever been found. 

 P. B. Peabody (1901) who probably found more nests than any other 

 single person wrote of it: 



Leconte's Sparrow nests where dead grass is thickest. All along the Red 

 River are still wide stretches of prairie, the lowland sections of which abound in 

 lower spots with luxuriant growths of heavier grass and vetch. It is in such 

 places that Leconte's Sparrow breeds. This bird is exceedingly local. Every 

 such bit of meadow as I have described will have its pair of birds; and an expert 

 can repeatedly flush the male, and at times the female, from this patch at almost 

 any time of day. * * * 



It [the nest] would seem to be built, in the main, as follows: where dead and 

 fallen grass is thickest, the bird interweaves dead grasses among the standing 

 stems, thus forming a rude nest. Within this is placed the nest proper; this is 

 an exquisitely neat, well-rounded and deeply-cupped structure, composed uni- 

 formly of the very finest grasses, In all but two of the nests noted above, there 

 was a more or less thick covering of fallen dead grass; all the nests except these 

 two were in the lowland. The average nest is placed with the base about eight 

 inches above the ground. One of the lowland nests noted barely touched the 

 ground, however, while the two upland nests were half sunk into the earth, being 

 thus, in situation and surroundings, somewhat like nests of the Western Savanna 

 Sparrow, though somewhat smaller and relatively deeper. 



Of a nest I found at Munuscong Bay State Park, Mich., I wrote 

 (1937): 



The nest was built in a perfectly dry area which on two occasions became 

 flooded during heavy rains, water filling the lower half of the nest the first time, 

 yet the female incubated regardless. The second time, the j^oung had hatched, 

 and although I had raised the nest several inches, they were drowned. Originally 

 this nest was about 30 mm. from the ground under a mass of fallen last year's 

 rushes, through which the new rushes were just beginning to show. A few short 

 willows were scattered throughout the area, two or three of which were very 

 close to the nest. * * * it measured, when fresh, 60 by 60 mm. inside and 90 

 by 120 mm. in outside dimensions. The floor was 30 mm. below the top and the 

 walls were from 30 to 35 mm. thick. It was a rather bulky afi'air, yet beautifully 

 constructed. 



This nest was built of stems of grass, of Eleocharis palustris, and 

 smaller rushes lined with very fine grass. Thomas S. Roberts (1932) 

 reports hair in addition to fine grasses in the lining. 



Eggs. — Le Conte's sparrow lays three to five, usually four eggs. 



