Jacobs on Nesting of Grasshopper Sparrow. 19 



or two later, when the little first Edition of "Davies' Nest and 

 Eggs" came out, I cleared up the identity, which, by the way, 

 was made easier by the fact that no other sparrow, having sim- 

 ilar nests and eggs, was likely to be found here. The eggs, I 

 discovered, after getting home, were badly incubated, and [ 

 lost them at the end of the blow-pipe. 



Several years went by without this bird or its nest coming 

 under my observation; and when, in 1893, I was preparing a 

 collection of Pennsylvania eggs for exhibition at the Chicago 

 World's Fair, I almost grieved over the loss of this set, but 

 the species was represented by a set of three eggs from Xcw 

 Jersev. A bird apparently so rare. I thought, could be found 

 nesting only by chance, and after several fruitless hunts, 1 

 gave up hope of ever replacing the lost set. Thus the matter 

 stood for some years, when a friend brought me a nest and 

 five eggs of a sparrow, unknown to him, which he had found 

 by accidentally stepping against a bunch of grass, flushing the 

 bird. These proved to be eggs of the Yellow-winged. The 

 eggs were fresh, and were found on July 8, L898, in a pasture 

 field about six miles west of Waynesburg. The composition 

 of the nest was of grass and grass-rootlets, lined with fine 

 grass. Measurements : Outside diameter, 4.5 in.; inside, 2.5 

 in. Outside depth, 2.0 in. : inside, 1.3 in. It was sunken in the 

 ground and well concealed by the tuft of grass. 



Comparing these eggs with two sets taken lately by myself, 

 I find them to be much smaller, and exhibiting a less mottled 

 appearance where the markings are thickest, which is in the 

 form of a broken wreath around the larger end of each. The 

 ground color is pure white, which is the case with the other 

 two sets mentioned, and the predominating color of the mark- 

 ings is burnt sienna, intermixed with fewer blotches of laven- 

 der and heliotrope purple. In shape they are broad or rounded 

 ovate, and measure .T3x.5G, .72x.56, .71x.56, .67x.54, and .69x 

 .56 inch. 



The finding of this set of Yellow-winged Sparrow revived 

 my old enthusiasm to find the bird nesting. Therefore, dur- 

 ing the next few years, I spent many hours in fruitless search, 

 until June 21, 1903, when, as on my first discovery, I acci- 

 dentally flushed a bird from her nest sunken in the ground 

 and well concealed bv "sink field" vines, in a neglected field 



