THE OSPREY. 



103 



driven beyond the utmost limits of the courting; honor of the bridegroom, be it remembered, he ever 

 ground, — then returning in triumph, boasts an brags proves faithful to the marriage vow. As equal part- 

 in transports of delight Openly she will not censure, ner, he never shirks his share of labor. While she 

 nor will she applaud ; like womankind she means no attends to her domestic duties, and he is not otherwise 

 wrong, yet in her heart conquest she dearly loves, engaged, from stake or stump he entertains her with 

 When their wooing and courtship are over and they his choicest songs. In conclusion Pokagon in his heart 

 become husband and wife, at once they proceed to is compelled to admit, that the loyalty, and fidelity of 

 select some homelike stub — clenn out a room therein these lovers, as husband and wife, as father and mother 

 for the reception of their future offspring. To the are worthy examples to be followed by the humankind. 



LECONTI'S SPARROW IN NEW \ ORK. 



LOUIS .AG.ASSIZ FUERTES. 



ON the eleventh of October, 1897, while search- Upon comparing it with the series of specimens in 

 ing for new migrants in the large marsh at the collection of the American Museum of Natural 

 the head of Cayuga Lake, in the central part History, it was found to agree almost in every finest 

 of New York State, my attention was attracted detail of plumage with 



by a pale-colored little ^ . — , one specimen, in the 



first plumage after the 

 nestli ng plumage, 

 pointing to the proba- 

 bility that this speci- 

 men must have been 

 bred at no great dis- 

 tance from where it 

 was shot. The plum- 

 age agrees perfectly 

 with the one called 

 ■'No. 2" by Mr. C. L. 

 Herrick, in Dr. P. L. 

 Hatch's 'Notes on the 

 Birds of Minnesota,' 

 except in the note con- 

 cerning the relative 

 length of primaries 

 given for the species. 

 Audubon in describing 

 the bird, said : "First 

 quill the longest, the 

 rest diminishing rap- 

 idl\ " I have yet to see 

 the sparrow in which 

 this is the case : cer- 

 tainl\ the specimen I 

 shot was not so, nor 

 any I examined, al- 

 though I never saw 

 Audubon's type spec- 

 imen. In the 'Auk' 

 for October, 1897, 

 there appeared a no- 

 brought it to the ground. I had some difficulty in tice of the occurrence of this bird in May, near 

 finding the specimen after it was shot, so completely Toronto, Canada. This is, I believe, the first record 



of the species in the eastern part of British America, 

 and I find no previous record of its having been taken 

 in that part of the United States east of a line drawn 

 from Northern North Carolina to Northern Illinois. 

 Thus I hope to establish the record for this species in 



Sparrow which I no- 

 ticed a few yards 

 ahead of me, dipping 

 and running nimbly 

 through the tall dried 

 grass at the side of the 

 marsh. It first flew 

 out of a tall clump of 

 yellow grass, only a 

 few feet in front of 

 me, and I had almost 

 to kick it out of the 

 clump to get another 

 view of it. Then it 

 flew only a short dis- 

 tance, in an erratic 

 manner, when it flut- 

 tered down, and ran, 

 in a very mouse-like 

 way, through the thick 

 marsh grasses, over 

 the mud, and behind 

 another large clump. 

 Fortunately I had a 

 friend with me, who 

 was willing to help me, 

 or I fear I should 

 never have had an op- 

 portunity to write this 

 sketch. He went in to 

 flush the bird, which 

 he succeeded in doing, 

 and I by a lucky shot 



}11.MNEV SWIFT — BY EKM. 



II. 'MPSON. 



From ■ Birds of \'illage and Field.' Copyright, 1^98. by Florence 

 A. Merriaiii. 



did the striped plumage of the bird's back mingle 

 with the yellow grass and dark shadows in it. At 

 first I thought I had a young Henslow's Bunting, but 

 the bill I saw to be much too slender. I was still 

 afraid to trust myself, however, so took the specimen 

 with me to the Congress of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, in New York City. There it was easily New York State, if not for the whole section of the 

 identified as .\iiniiodia),ins lecouli. countr\- cited above. 



