Lincoln's sparrow. 325 



and extends its summer visit to the Fur Countries. It is not at any 

 season gregarious, each individual coming and going as suits itself. 

 It is so common everywhere, that should those frequenting any given 

 district all take wing at one time, the flock would be very large. 



MELOSPIZA LINCOLNI (Aud.). 

 235. Lincoln's Sparrow. (583) 



Below, white ; breast banded and sides often shaded with yellowish ; every- 

 where, except on the belly, thickly and sharply streaked with dusky ; above, 

 grayish-brown, crown and back with blackish, brownish and paler streaks ; 

 tail, grayish-brown, the feathers usually showing blackish shaft lines ; wings, 

 tlie same, the coverts and inner quills blackish, with bay and whitish edgings ; 

 no yellow on wings or head. Length, 5g ; wing and tail, about 2^. 



Hab. — North America at large, breeding chiefly north of the United States 

 and in the higher parts of the Rocky Mountains, south in winter to Guatemala. 



Nest, on the ground, composed of grass throughout, the finest used for 

 lining inside. 



Eggs, four to six, greenish-white, clouded with brown. 



Nest and eggs scarcely distinguishable from those of the Song Sparrow. 



This quiet little Sparrow is almost unknown in the east, although 

 it has been found at a number of different points, and from its 

 retiring habits may be more common than we think it is. 



Audubon found it first in Labrador, the young being able to fly 

 on 4th of July. It has occasionally been captured during the season 

 of migration, chiefly in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and there is 

 in the Bulletin of the ISTuttal Club, 1878, an account of a nest being 

 found by Mr. Bagg in Hamilton County, N.Y. 



Ontario was without a record of this species till the 23rd of May, 

 1885, when K. C. Mcll wraith got into a bird wave which had been 

 stopped at Hamilton Beach by a head wind during the previous 

 night, and from a crowd, composed of different classes in large 

 numbers, picked out two Lincoln's Sparrows, and on the 25th he got 

 two more at the same place. Since that time Mr. George R. White 

 reports having taken one at Ottawa, and Mr. Saunders has also 

 secured one at London. 



In the west the history of the species is entirely different. Mr. 

 Trippe, writing from Colorado, says : " Lincoln's Finch is abundant 

 and migratory. It breeds from about 9,500 or 10,000 feet up to the 

 timber line. It arrives at Idaho Springs early in May, and soon 



