22 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



adelphia and seem to prefer level fields covered with timothy or 

 clover. They nest on the ground. Every level field of grain or 

 grass is perpetually serenaded with chip, chip, che, che, che. 

 In traveling through different parts of New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania in spring and summer, whenever I came to level fields of 

 deep grass, I have constantly heard these birds around me." 



1825-1832. Thoiiias Nuttall, Manual Ornith., 1832, vol. I, 

 p. 461. "These birds arrive in Pennsylvania and New Eng- 

 land from the south about the middle of May and abound in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia," etc. Evidently based on Wilson, 

 above. In the early forties, Dr. Woodhouse used to observe this 

 bird abundantly in his walks with Nuttall around Philadelphia 

 and adjoining counties. 



"1825-1835.. Audubon, Ornith. Biog., vol. IV, 1838, pp. 579, 

 580. "Although this handsome Bunting may be said to be 

 abundant in our middle Atlantic districts, it is much less so 

 than in the vast prairies of the southwest. * * * Abundant on 

 the open lands of Missouri and Illinois, but rarer in Ohio and 

 scarce in Kentucky. They are rarely observed to joass over 

 South Carolina but in Pennsylvania they are plentiful, and 

 there breed in every field covered with grass or grain. I have 

 also met them in Massachusetts, but beyond this the}' are not 

 to be seen to the eastward." In late summer, " I once went 

 from Philadelphia in search of them, accompanied by my friend 

 Edward Harris and my son John Woodhouse. Having reached 

 Salem, in New Jersey, we rambled some time in the neighbor- 

 hood and found an elevated piece of ground, closeh' covered 

 with high rush weeds, among which a great number of these 

 birds had assembled. It being late in July, the males were 

 moulting," etc. "These birds are very partial to particular 

 localities. Sandy soil, unmixed with clay or earth, is not favor- 

 able to them, and it is probably for this reason that none are 

 found in an}' purely sandy part of the State of New .Jersey." 



1844-1845. S. F. Baird, Catalogue of Birds near Carlisle, 

 Cumberland county, Pa., Silliman's Amer. Jour. Sci., 1844, 

 and Lit. Pvec. Linn. Assn., Pa. College, 1845, p. 253. "Com- 

 mon, summer." 



1840-1850. Dr. S. W. Woodhouse: "Philadelphia, Decern- 



