THE BIKDS OP NEW JERSEY. 231 



547 Passerherbulus henslowi (Audubon). 

 Henslow's Sparrow. 



Adults. — Length, 5. Wing, 2.15. Above, head and neck, light olive ; back 

 and rump, chestnut, many feathers with black centers and gray edgings ; wings 

 largely edged with chestnut ; below, buffy-white, deepest on chest ; breast and 

 sides finely streaked with black. 



Young in first summer.- — ^Dull brownish-buff above, spotted with black; yel- 

 lowish-white below, with a few dusky streaks on the sides. 



Nest of grass well concealed in a tussock ; eggs, four to five, dull white, 

 speckled with reddish-brown, .75 x .55. 



Local summer resident, especially in the southern half of the State. 



This obscure little Sparrow is found in the cranberry bogs of the 

 pine barrens, in open swamps along the coast and similar localities in 

 some of the northern counties. Eecent investigations on the part of 

 the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club seem to show that this bird 

 is not so scarce as was formerly supposed, or else has increased in num- 

 bers of late years. 



The former seems to me the more likely, as the bird is very easily 

 overlooked, although once our attention has been called to its note we 

 are not likely again to pass it by. 



Audubon had exactly the same experience as our modern observers 

 since he says : "This species is abundant in the State of New Jersey 

 and breeds there, but of this I was not aware until * * * the 

 spring of 1838, when my friend, Dr. James Trudeau, sent me a speci- 

 men procured by himself while in company with our mutual friend, 

 Edward Harris, Esq." And in another place, apparently adopting the 

 view of a change in its abundance, he says : "It has become a common 

 bird in the State of New Jersey." 



Wilson was entirely unacquainted with it as was Nuttall, so far as 

 personal experience goes. Turnbull regarded it as rather rare in the 

 State. 



Mr. John Mcllvain obtained a number of specimens on Seven Mile 

 Beach in June, 1875,^ and Mr, H. G. Parker found a nest there on 

 May 27th, 1885.^ The next year Dr. A. P. Brown found that it was 

 present in boggy tracts near Point Pleasant,^ and on August 8th, 1889, 



^ A. R. Justice, Atlantic Slope Nat., I., p. 79. 



' O. and O., XI., p. 140. 



^ Stone, Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 114. 



