BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



2 59 



1903, 30; December 6, 1903, 30; December 8, 1902, 10; December 9, 1900, 

 1 ; December 28, 1902, 25 ; January 4, 1904, 6 ; January 21, 1894, 1 ; January 

 24, 1904, 6 ; January 25, 1905, o; February 5, 1899, 2 ; February 15, 1900,0; 

 February 22, 1903, o ; February 25, 1900, o ; March 10, 1901, 10; March 15, 

 1899, 6; March 20, 1880, 2; March 22, 1891, 4; March 22, 1878, 7; March 

 24, 1884, 8; March 25, 1893, 1; March 27, 1880, 5; March 30, 1893, 2; 

 March 30, 1901, 1; March 30, 1883, 6; March 31, 1902, 3; April 1, 1885, 

 2; April 1, 1884, 3; April 3, 1879, 3! April 4, 1903,3; April 5, 1903,2; 

 April 6, 1885, 3; April 10, 1904, 1. 



To Mr. C. J. Maynard belongs the honor of the discovery of this interesting 

 bird, which was through a mistake of Prof. Baird's first believed to be Baird's 

 Sparrow (Coturniculus bairdii), of which at that time there was only one faded 

 specimen in existence. The first Ipswich Sparrow was shot by Mr. Maynard 

 on December 4th, 1868, among the Ipswich sand dunes and its discovery as a 

 Baird's Sparrow was announced in the American Naturalist, for December, 1869 

 (p. 554). In 1870, Mr. Maynard's Naturalist's Guide was published, containing 

 a description of the Ipswich dunes, and of the Sparrow, and with a plate of the 

 bird still appearing under the name of Baird's Sparrow. After two more speci- 

 mens of this bird were taken in October, 1870, it was discovered that it was a 

 new species, and was named by Maynard in the American Naturalist for October, 

 1872 (p. 637), " Passerculus princeps, the Large Barren-ground Sparrow." 



From that time on, Passerculus princeps, which took the name of Ipswich 

 Sparrow, has been found with increasing frequency. Although Maynard 

 deserves the full credit for the discovery of this species, it is interesting to 

 think that Wilson, the father of American ornithology, may have shot and 

 figured an Ipswich Sparrow many years previous. Wilson gives two figures 

 of the Savanna Sparrow ; one, labeled female, is small and dark, a good like- 

 ness of the bird, while the male is large and much lighter colored, strikingly 

 like the Ipswich Sparrow. This resemblance to the Ipswich Sparrow is notice- 

 able not only in the large, colored plates, but also in the smaller uncolored 

 engravings, and it seems to me there can be no doubt but that Wilson actually 

 figured an Ipswich Sparrow. This fact was discovered by Mr. I. Norris De 

 Haven 1 and called to the attention of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club 

 on January 17th, 1893. Mr. Witmer Stone was so convinced of the truth of 

 this identification that, with Mr. De Haven's permission, he published an article 

 on Alexander Wilson and the Ipswich Sparrow, in The Osprey, for May, 1898 

 (vol. 2, no. 9, p. 1 17). 



The history of the discovery of the breeding home of the Ipswich Sparrow 



l I. N. De Haven: Abstract of the Proc. Delaware Valley Orn. Club, no. 2, p. 8, 1892-97. 



