228 EEPOET OF XEW JEESEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Washington Park, on the Delaware; February 14th, 1895. Isaac 

 S. Eeiff (Coll. W. Stone). 



Salem; December 28th, 1898. Henry Warrington (Coll. W. 

 Stone). 



Thurber reports it as very rare at Morristown, and Chapman as rare 

 near Xew York City. 



540 Pooecetes gramineus (Gmelin). 



Vesper Sparrow. 



Adults. — Length. 5.50-6.50. Wing, 3.20. Above, grayish-brown, strongly 

 streaked with black : wings and tail, dusky, edged with grayish-brown : outer- 

 most tail feather, mainly white, next one white, white on both webs toward 

 the end, the shaft remaining dusky ; under parts, white, slightly tinged with 

 buff; streaked with dusky across the breast and down the sides and flanks. 

 Buff and brown tints and wing edgings more conspicuous in autumn. 



Young in first summer. — Similar, but paler. 



IStest of grass lined with rootlets, hair, etc., placed on the ground ; eggs, four 

 to five, bluish-white, spotted and scrawled with brown, .80 x .60. 



Common summer resident. Arrives March 16th (March .30th), de- 

 parts Xovember 1st. Winters sparingly in the southern counties; 

 Haddonfield, December 29th, 1880 (S. N. Ehoads) ; Princeton, Janu- 

 ary 31st, 1879 (W. E. D. Scott); Crosswicks, winter of 1904-5 (C. 

 C. Abbott), and more regularly in Cape May and Cumberland. 



The Yesper is the characteristic Sparrow of the dry old fields with 

 Indian grass and low briers scattered here and there, and of the open 

 country roadside. He is dusty colored, like the ground upon which 

 he runs, but may be told at once from all our other Sparrows by the 

 white lateral tail feathers which he displays as he flits along ahead 

 of us. 



The song of the Yesper is a loud chant, uttered as he perches on 

 the top of some small tree or on the telegraph wire along the roadside. 

 It resembles the song of the Song Sparrow, but the melody is different. 



541 Passerculus princeps Maynard. 

 Ipswich Sparrow. 



Adults. — Length. 6.50. Wing. 3. Above, pale grayish: top of head and back 

 streaked with pale brown and blackish ; a whitish stripe over the eye and a short 

 one down the crown : wings edged with pale cinnamon, tertials with whitish ; 

 under part.s, white, streaked with brown across the breast and down the sides. 



Spring males have a spot of yellow in front of the eye. 



