FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 295 



parts. This song is often uttered while the bird takes a short flight 

 upward : it then drops down again into the tangled weeds and grasses, 

 where it is almost impossible to follow it " (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vi, 

 1881, p. 57). 



548. Ammodramus lecontei (^^^^.). Leconte's Sparrow. Ad. — 



No yellow before the eye or on tlie bend of the wing ; a broad ochraceous-butf 

 line over the eye, and a cream-buii line through the center of the blackish 

 crown ; nape rufous-brown, each feather with a small black central spot and 

 an ashy border ; back black, the feathers margined first by rufous, then cream- 

 butf and whitish ; tail grayish brown, with a slight rufous tinge, darker along 

 the shaft: the feathers narrow and sharply pointed, the outer ones much the 

 shortest; breast and sides tinged with butfy, and more or less streaked with 

 black ; belly white. L., 5-00 ; W., 2-00 ; T., 2-05 ; B., -35. 



Range. — " Great Plains and more western prairies, breeding from Dakota, 

 Minnesota, etc., to Manitoba, migrating southward and eastward, in winter, 

 through Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, etc., to South Carolina, and Gulf States from 

 Florida to Texas" (Kidgw.). 



Nest., of fine grasses, on the ground. Eggs., three, delicate pink, lightly 

 spotted with brownish and black near the larger end, -75 x -50 (Thompson). 



My experience on the coast of Texas with this elusive little Spar- 

 row conforms with that of most observers, and the few specimens I 

 found were in wet marshes. Mr. L. M. Loomis, however, tells us that 

 at Chester, South Carolina, where Leconte's Sparrow is a locally com- 

 mon winter visitant, it shows a marked preference for dry " old fields " 

 of broom sedge (Auk, ii, 1885, p. 190). 



Few birds are more difficult to flush. It exhibits a rail-like disin- 

 clination to take wing, and, flying low and feebly, makes for the nearest 

 cover. Ernest E. Thompson records it as an abundant summer resi- 

 dent in the willow sloughs and grassy flats of Manitoba, and describes 

 its call-notes as a thin, sharp, ventriloqnial tweet, and a single, long- 

 drawn hizz ; while its song, which is delivered from some low perch a 

 little above the grass, is a tiny, husky, double-noted reese reese, " so 

 thin a sound and so creaky, that I b'elieve it is usually attributed to a 

 grasshopper." 



549. Ammodramus caudacutus (Qmel.). Sharp-tailed Spar- 

 row. Ad. — General color of the upper parts a brownish olive-green; crown 

 olive-brown, with a blue-gray line through its center; gray ear-coverts, in- 

 closed by ochraeeous-buff" lines, one of which passes over the eye and one 

 down the side of the throat; feathers of the back margined with grayish and 

 sometimes whitish ; bend of the wing yellow ; tail-feathers narrow and 

 sharply pointed, the outer feathers much the shortest; breast and sides 

 washed with buffy, paler in summer, and distinctly streaked with black ; 

 middle of the throat and belly white or whitish. " L., 5-85 ; W., 2-30 ; T., 1-90 ; 

 B., -50" (Dwlght). 



