54 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



blades of the same material. Eggs: 3 or 4. white, pale 

 greenish or brownish white rather coarsely blotched 

 with chestnut and lavender-gray chiefly around large 

 end. 



Distribution. — North America at large; breeding 

 chiefly north of the United States and in the higher 

 parts of the Rocky Aloinitains and Sierra Nevada; 

 south in winter to Panama. 



" Bird-afraid-of-his-shadow," W. Leon Daw- 

 son calls this Sparrow, and then he asks, " Why 

 should a bird of inconspicuous color steal silently 

 through our woods and slink along our streams 

 with bated breath as if in mortal dread of the 

 human eye ? Are we such hobgoblins ? " Yet 

 this appears to be the characteristic demeanor of 

 the bird throughout its very wide range. And 

 the tendency of this conduct to make the bird 

 little known is strengthened by its habit of arriv- 

 ing in the northern latitudes after most of the 

 other birds are on hand and engaging our atten- 

 tion, and departing in the fall with the general 

 wave of migrating Sparrows, in whiclt it loses 

 its identity. 



From the Song Sparrow, which it closely re- 

 sembles, it may be distinguished by its smaller 

 size, its shorter tail, the bufif belt across its nar- 

 rowly streaked breast, and the olive-gray color 



of the sides of its head. Its song, which is not 

 often heard, is. according to Dr. Dwight, " not 

 loud, and suggests the bubbling, guttural notes 

 of the House Wren, combined with the sweet 

 rippling music of the Purple Finch, and when 

 you think the song is done there is an unexpected 

 aftermath." 



The food of the Lincoln Sparrow resembles 

 that of the Song Sparrow, but more ants and 

 fewer grasshoppers are destroyed than by the 

 Song Sparrow. 



In British Columbia and western Washington 

 is a variety of the Lincoln Sparrow called For- 

 bush's Sparrow (Mclospha lincolni striata) . In 

 migration it is found in California also. The 

 stripe over the eye and the upper parts are more 

 strongly olivaceous and the dark streaks of the 

 back are blacker and more numerous. Its 

 habits are similar to those of its congener. 



SWAMP SPARROW 

 Melospiza georgiana {Latham') 



A. O. n. Number 584 Sec Color n.Tte 84 



Courtesy of Am. AIus. Nat. Hist. 

 SWAMP SPARROW (J nat. size) 

 A sprite of swampy country 



Other Name. — Swamp Song Sparrow. 



General Description. — Length. 534 inches. Upper 

 parts, brown streaked with black ; under parts, gray. 

 Wings, short and rounded ; tail, about the length of 

 wing, rounded or double rounded, the feathers narrow 

 and almost pointed at the tip. 



Color. — Adults ; Forehead, black divided by a center 

 line of grayish or whitish; cro'ani, chcstnnf sometimes 

 streaked with blackish ; back of head, blackish laterally, 

 grayish centrally ; hack and shoulders, light brown 

 broadly streaked with black ; rump, olive-brownish 

 streaked with dusky : upper tail-coverts, more rusty 

 brown, distinctly streaked with black ; tail, rusty brown ; 

 exposed surface of greater wing-coverts and second- 

 aries chestnut; inner icing-quills black, edged on outer 

 zi'cbs 7vith chestnut and bufTy ; sides of neck and hind- 

 neck, gray ; ear region, brownish gray, or light brownish 

 margined above by a distinct streak behind eye of black 

 and chestnut and beneath by a narrower streak of 

 same ; chin, throat, and abdomen, white or grayish 

 white; chest, light gray or brownish gray, sometimes 

 narrowly and indistinctly streaked with dusky ; sides 

 and flanks (especially the latter), tawny brown; under 

 tail-coverts, huffy with central marks of dusky. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest ; Placed on ground in a 



