THE WILSON BULLETIN 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY 



VOL. XXXIII MARCH, 1921 NO. 1 



OLD SERIES VOL. XXXIII. NEW SERIES VOL. XXVIII 



NESTING OF BACHMANS SPARROW 



ALBERT F. GAINER 



Throughout middle Tennessee, the Bachnians : Spar- 

 row {PcKcfra (cstivdlis JxichDiaiii) is a fairly common sum- 

 mer resident, where suitable habitat occurs. The hab- 

 itat to which it is most partial consists of wooded ])astnre 

 lands, in which there is a good growth of long grass, or 

 tree bordered edges of old fields where grass rather than 

 weeds predominate. Here its song ma}^ be heard from its 

 arrival early in April until its departure in October. The 

 surprLsiug sweetness and clearness of its song has brought 

 forth many published descriptions, among which might be 

 mentioned one from this section, by Dr. R. M. Strong, 

 which appeared in The Auk for A})ril, 1918, page 220. 



The nest of this sparrow is quite diflticult to locate, 

 due to the terrestrial habits of the birds and the difficulty 

 of flushing them while incubating. The nest figured as the 

 frontispiece of this issue was found by myself on July 20, 

 1!)1S, when it held four fresh eggs. The lateness of the 

 date was surprising. It was located in an extensive wooded 

 pasture, about a mile south of the limits of Nashville, and 

 the immediate environment is shown by the small photo- 

 graph. The nest was found by flushing both birds from it. 

 They flew only a yard and then began to run through the 

 grass like mice. I walked after one for a distance of 100 

 feet before it took wing. On returning to my handker- 

 chief, which I had left behind to mark the si)ot, 1 found 

 the nest well hidden in the midst of thick grass. It n)uch 

 resembled a nest of the Meadowlark in that it was arched 

 over and com]det<'ly hidden from above. The nest was sub- 



