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



Late dates of fall departure are: Manitoba — Treesbank, September 

 18. North Dakota — Cass County, October 18 (average, September 

 26). South Dakota — Forestburg, October 5. Kansas — Neosho Falls, 

 December 18. Minnesota — Hutchinson, October 26 (average of 6 

 years for southern Minnesota, October 9). Wisconsin — Iowa County, 

 November 5. Michigan — Newberry, October 10. Ohio — Hebron, 

 November 23. Illinois — Port Byron, October 14; Chicago, October 

 12. Missouri — St. Louis, November 20. 



Egg dates. — Alberta: 6 records, June 6 to June 24. 



Illinois: 6 records. May 22 to June 12. 



Manitoba: 7 records, June 4 to June 21. 



Michigan: 1 record, June 4. 



Minnesota: 15 records, May 29 to June 24; 13 records, May 29 to 

 June 9. 



Ontario: 4 records, June 10 to July 11; 1 record, June 10. 



Saskatchewan: 1 record, June 4. 



Wisconsin: 6 records. May 23 to June 6. 



PASSERHERBULUS HENSLOWII SUSURRANS Brewster 



Eastern Henslow's Sparrow 



PLATE 44 



Contributed by Wendell P. Smith 



Habits 



The Atlantic coastal race of the Henslow's sparrow, described by 

 William Brewster in 1919 from FaUs Church, Va., is slightly darker 

 than the nominate western form, has huffier underparts, more yellow 

 at the bend of the wing, and a much stouter biU. 



Henslow's sparrow is a shy and retiring little inhabitant of open 

 fields and grasslands, where it associates with the far more obvious and 

 familiar bobolinks, meadowlarks, Savannah and grasshopper sparrows. 

 While occasionally found in dry and in cultivated uplands, it shows a 

 preference for old weedy fields and swales, especially wet or damp 

 ones. In most instances thick vegetation seems a basic requirement 

 of its habitat, which is in keeping with its custom of skulking or 

 running mouselike through the grass at the approach of an intruder. 

 Its scurrying through the undercover is so characteristic that Robert F. 

 Mason, Jr., suggested in a letter to Mr. Bent that "mouse sparrow" 

 might be a more appropriate name for it. It seldom flies when dis- 

 turbed, and when it does take wing, it is often for only a short distance, 

 so short that N. C. Brown (1879) calls its flights little more than 

 "respectable jumps over the grass." 



