38 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 78. 



about twelve inches, or iTiore.) As Mr. Abbott infers, the 

 nest of the LeConte Sparrow is (]:)robably) never on the 

 ground. It is immeasurably unfortunate that Mr. Abbott did 

 not secure one of the parents of the eggs he has decribed, or 

 that he did not make minute notes as to the character of the 

 call of this fugitive little LeConte Sparrow. If he will kindly 

 attempt this, in the pages of the Bulletin, he will possibly be 

 doing distributional ornithological science a distinct favor ; 

 since, in point of fact, there is no other American sparrow 

 whose song note is in any remotest sense like that of A. Ic- 

 contei: (which is uttered, with pre-eminent distinctness and 

 frequency, at nightfall.) The flight ascribed by Mr. Abbott to 

 the parent bird he flushed on his stream-bordering side-hill 

 might mislead careful observers who certainly desire to know 

 just how a flushed Le Conte Sparrow flies from her nest. In 

 very truth, she flics, sometimes one way, sometimes another, 

 according to her individual temperament. At times a flushed 

 mother of this species will fly slowly from her nest. Seldom, 

 indeed, Vv'ill she "dart slowly": (how could she)? The flight 

 of the LeConte, from her nest is usually direct, poised, son-.e- 

 times slow ; but never "feeble." Moreover, I never yet made 

 the acquaintance of a Le Conte Sparrow that would flush from 

 the grass nearer than ten feet to her nest. She creeps, mouse- 

 like, from her nest, at the faintest alarm ; flushing, then only 

 at some distance, exactly as does a bobolink. This is a prac- 

 tically invarying fact; (though nobody would be readier than 

 I to accept statement as to one, twO' or three instances to the 

 contrary. We have yet to learn,-many of us,-that there are few 

 universal laws governing, intra-specifically, any unit of bird- 

 behavior.) For the possible edification of such students of 

 sparrow ways as have never had the good fortune to stud}- the 

 LeConte and the Nelson Sparrows in their nesting-environ, 

 one might add a few items to this paper-of-protest. 



Lc Conte is a sparrow of the upland meadows ; A'clson's, of 

 the lowlands. The nests and the eggs of the two, unlike as are 

 the habits, calls and nuptial songs of these two "cousins," are 

 practically identical ■ especially the nests. The eggs of Nelsrn 



