LINCOLN’S SPARROW. 
contiguous tones. This sparrow is not an uncommon 
‘resident of some of the White Mountain summits—those 
not altogether bare of vegetation. I have met the little 
fellow on Mts. Moosilauke, Lafayette, Washington, and 
Osceola, and on the latter’s summit he was friendly enough 
and hungry enough at the luncheon hour to take some 
crumbs from my hand! His song bears a family likeness 
to those of the Junco, Chippy, and Field Sparrow. 
Lincoln’s This is a small boreal Sparrow, rather 
ancy rare east of the Alleghanies; but it is not 
Melospiza : ; 
lincolni unusual to meet him in the cool retreats 
L.5.65 inches Of scattered spruces and tamaracks in the 
May 5thand mountain regions of the northeastern 
November 1st States in early spring or autumn. An 
extremely shy bird, he is very difficult to observe 
with any degree of satisfaction as he flees to cover 
immediately upon the approach of an intruder, and it is 
only with careful and stealthy movements that one may 
secure a vantage point for a good look at him. Simi- 
lar in markings to the Song Sparrow, to which he is closely 
related, his coloring is much lighter—or grayer, if one 
obtains a front view—and the spots on the breast are fewer 
and slighter, only in rare cases merging into the semblance 
of a blotch like that on the Song Sparrow;* as a rule Mu- 
seum specimens show no blotch; the upper parts olive or 
grayish brown streaked with sepia, throat dull white, breast 
with a broad band of ocherous buff, and a stripe of the 
same color outlined with sepia is at either side of the 
throat; a tinge of buff also stains the flanks. 
Nest, built of dried grasses, fine roots, and moss, lined 
with hairs and soft material, situated low in a shrub or 
directly upon the ground. Egg, bluish white or china 
white evenly flecked, or sometimes encircled at the larger 
end with thick spots of burnt sienna brown. 
The species breeds from the Yukon Valley, Alaska, 
* Vide Bradford Torrey, in Footing it in Franconia, p. 77. 1 agree 
in the effect he mentions of a running together of the dark 
streaks, but I am sure this is produced by the displacement of 
surface feathers showing their dark bases. 
287 
