BACHMAN S SPARROW [PKL'L\EA .iiSTIVALIS 

 BACHMANII ) IN VIRGINIA. 



In advance of a publication with colored plate, which will appear next 

 summer — as I desire another season of observation upon the species — , I 

 shall now devote a few lines to my most interesting of bird records. 

 About the middle of May. 1897, while working my way through Dog- 

 woods to a clearing on the slope of a hill along Blackwater Creek, in 

 Campbell Co., in southeastern Virginia, I came upon the first specimen 

 of Bachman's Sparrow, Feuccea cesLivalis bach}?iann, ever taken in Vir- 

 ginia. I was just emerging from the Dogwood bushes, (Cornuiis/io?-/da) 

 and was yet in the margin of the thicket when my attention was attracted 

 by a small, brownish bird stealthily moving through the grass just on the 

 thicket's outskirts. Thinking it a Song Sparrow, I raised my gun, as 1 

 have never found that species nesting in this portion of the state, and my 

 friend, Mr. William Palmer, had repeatedly requested me to find out 

 whether it nested there, when it flew and disappieared farther down the 

 hill. I followed the direction it had taken and soon found it again. On 

 close scrutiny with my glasses I found it was a new bird to me, and I 

 began to watch it very closely, concealing myself behind a burnt pine 

 stump. Soon the bird became restless and ran through the grass till it 

 disappeared again, this time in a suspicious looking grass tuft a few feet 

 from where I stood. I approached the tuft and not till I nearly touched 

 it did the bird leave. Then it slid off its nest and ran down the hill. On 

 pulling the grass of the tuft aside a somewhat domed structure of dried 

 grasses was disclosed, and upon looking in the hole on the nest's side. I 

 saw, much to my surprise, five white eggs, which proved later to be in 

 an advanced stage of incubation. The other bird came around and both 

 were secured for perfect identification. I knew when I saw the eggs the 

 species was bachmanii , but I knew not then the real importance of my 

 'take" until I made it known to Mr Wm. Palmer, who informed me of 

 the novel record. 



Owing to typhoid fever, which came near ending me on a collecting 

 trip "across the Great Divide, " I didn't get a chance to visit the locality 

 the past season, but next season mv brother will investigate matters for 

 me and I shall then write a pamphlet giving a more detailed account of 

 the nesting of the species in Virginia. Then I shall also get a series of 



