18 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 50. 



52. Orchard Oriole. 1. 



53. Common Torn. 200. 



54. Black Duck, 2. 



55. Carolina Wren, :',. 



56. Great Blue Heron. 5. 



57. Bald Eagle, 1. 



58. English Pheasant, 20. 



59. Piping Plover, 5. 



NESTING OF THE GRASSHOPPER SPARROW IN 

 SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 



BY J. WARREN JACOBS. 



The Yellow-winged Sparrow (Conturniculus savannarum 

 passerinus) is distributed in limited numbers, during the nest- 

 ing season, throughout Greene county, in the extreme south- 

 western corner of Pennsylvania. Their favorite resorts are in 

 the hillside fields and along the low ridges. In pasture fields, 

 not too cleanly kept, and where the wild "sink field" mats its 

 frail vines through the carpet of blue grass, the birds choose a 

 site for a nest. Xot every apparently good field has its pair of 

 birds, and indeed one may pass through several such fields with- 

 out hearing the song of this bird or flushing the female from her 

 nest. However, it must not be inferred from this that birds 

 have not escaped notice, or that a nest has not been passed 

 without the sitting bird taking flight. 



The bird itself is very shy; its song pleasing, but not dis- 

 tinguishable a very great distance, being easily drowned by 

 the rattle of numerous ever-singing chats and the medley of 

 a dozen other species which haunt the neglected fields. The 

 female is a close sitter, not leaving her post until almost 

 trampled upon. This makes nest-seeking very tedious; and 

 the apparent scarcity of this species renders uncertain the re- 

 sult of a careful search. 



( >ne of the very. first nests new to me was of this species, 

 and stumbled upon accidentally on top of the ridge overlook- 

 ing my home town, away back in the '80s, in about the second 

 year .if my bird studies. The old bird fluttered from under my 

 leet and darted down over the hill to a brier clump. It was a new 

 bird to me then, but I got a fairly good look at it; and a vear 



