82 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 
season, as many birds have a very characteristic flight 
at that time. My sparrow flies as a partridge by con- 
stant vertical elevation and depression of the wings. 
This movement, though is slow and peculiar and may 
be assumed as that of the turtle-dove or that of Icteria 
virens (yellow-breasted chat) at the period when they 
are making love. The chat is not only ‘chatty’ at the 
season of nesting, but his flight is most amusing. It 
would make many persons laugh to see him perform his 
aerial evolutions.” 
There is a marginal note, written a little later, giving 
the correct identification of the above specimen. The 
very next entry is another grasshopper sparrow, taken 
the same day, indicating that the Doctor was at this time 
a better collector than an ornithologist. He states that 
“This as well as that above had debris of insects in 
stomach.” 
In August, 1889, Dr. Avery published the following 
“Observations on the Grasshopper Sparrow in Hale 
County, Alabama”’: 
“Hale County lies between Tuscaloosa County on the 
north and Marengo County on the south; its western 
boundary is the Warrior River, its eastern, Perry County. 
The grasshopper sparrow, Ammodromas savannarum - 
passerinus, is found only in the Canebrake or Black Belt 
of Hale County. On its northern migratory path it prob- 
ably finds there suitable breeding grounds; and that 
may account for its presence in summer in that part of 
the county, while it is never seen at all, to my knowledge, 
in the less fertile, piney and sandy portion of the north 
of the county. 
“Tt winters farther south, and makes its appearance 
in this locality about the first of May, when it begins to 
breed. A nest of this species found by me on the 11th of 
this month (May) contained five eggs slightly incubated; 
it was in a depression in the ground, lined with grass, 
and was arched or domed on the top. The eggs were 
white and spotted with reddish-brown, mostly on the 
larger end, and not differing from the description given 
of the eggs of the grasshopper sparrow breeding farther 
north. 
