BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



265 



ready to drop with fatigue at any moment, is as characteristic as its high, grass- 

 hopper trill. By measurement, I have found that I could distinctly hear the 

 song one hundred and fifty yards, although the preliminary clicks could be heard 

 ten or fifteen yards only. The song resembles the grasshopper portion of the 

 song of the Savanna Sparrow, and I probably overlooked the bird on this 

 account. I have heard from the same station in Ipswich at the same time, the 

 short hissing song of the Sharp-tailed Sparrow, coming from the tall grass at the 

 edge of a salt-water ditch in the marsh, the grasshopper trill of the Grasshopper 

 Sparrow from the dry grassy hills adjoining the marsh, and the more prolonged 

 partly grasshopper and partly musical trilling of the Savanna Sparrow from the 

 dry "thatch" on the boundary between the two. After the Grasshopper Spar- 

 row stops singing it is rarely seen, and I am therefore unable to state how late 

 it stays with us. The latest date I have is July 21st when I found a bird in 

 song. The only locality at which I have found the bird is at Ipswich, but I 

 have no doubt that it is also found in other parts of the County. 



224 [547] Ammodramus henslowii (Aud.). 

 Henslow's Sparrow. 



Rare and local summer resident ; May to September. 



Eggs: May 25. 



Mr. J. A. Farley tells me that, in 1902, a few pairs of Henslow's Sparrows 

 came to a wet meadow recently drained in Lynnfield, and that he found one 

 nesting. My own experience with the bird is limited. On June 17th, 1903, I 

 saw one within twenty feet clinging to some beach-grass just back of the beach at 

 Ipswich. It disappeared and I did not see it again. On June 27th, 1904, fol- 

 lowing Mr. Farley's directions, I found at Lynnfield two Henslow's Sparrows in 

 a small wet marsh in which grew sedges, cotton-grass, pitcher-plants and cran- 

 berries. The meadow, about two acres in extent, is surrounded by alders, white 

 cedars, and larches. Here I heard a sharjD s/il-pp or shi-slik and soon a Hens- 

 low's Sparrow dropped into the grass with tail pointed downward like a Sharp- 

 tail. The curious song was repeated several times. The bird was shy and flew 

 vigorously from bush to bush, showing its chestnut brown back. 



