BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 27 I 



236 [581] Melospiza cinerea melodia (Wils.). 

 Song Sparrow. 



Abundant summer resident, a few winter; March 10 to November 4 ; win- 

 ter; average date of arrival for five years, March 10. 



Eggs : May 10 to July 29. 



I have occasionally found one or two Song Sparrows in January, especially 

 near the seacoast, and they are not very rare in December and the latter half of 

 February. On January 2 2d, 1904, I found four in the Ipswich dunes. I have 

 heard them sing in every month but January. Mr. Oldys has noted between 

 one and two thousand different songs of this bird, and even to a musically 

 untrained observer it is evident that the songs of this Sparrow differ individually, 

 but especially with the locality. For example, those on the Maine coast sing 

 very differently from those in Essex County, and I have noticed a difference 

 between the songs of those at Manchester and those at Ipswich, and I have 

 wondered whether the constant association with their cousins the Vesper Spar- 

 rows at Ipswich has not to some extent modified their songs there. The gently 

 warbling song so common during the last half of the summer and autumn, differs 

 entirely from their regular song, and appears to be confined to the young of the 

 year. 



I have seen in April a Song Sparrow scratching with both feet at once, 

 jumping forward like a Fox Sparrow, until a groove half the depth of the bird 

 was formed in the mellow earth of the garden. 



237 [583] Melospiza lincolni (Aud.). 

 Lincoln's Sparrow. 



Uncommon transient visitor ; May 31 ; September 27 to October 14. 



The Lincoln's Sparrow is generally a hard bird to find, keeping close in 

 walls and hedge rows, but on one occasion I had no difficulty, as I discovered 

 one flying about in the hay -loft of my barn. This was on May 31st, 1903. It 

 proved to be a female, very fat, with stomach stuffed with insects. As a rule, 

 however, it is easier to find the bird in the autumn than in the spring. 



