404 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



graphically represented as " tsip / tsip /t's/e-/e/e/e pr-re-e-ah," 

 uttered in a thin, high pitched, rather sibilant grasshopper-like 

 lisp. They sing at irregular intervals, the dusk and early morn- 

 ing being the favorite hours. 



They begin to lay in early June. The nest is placed in a 

 cup-shaped hollow about four inches in diameter and fully two 

 in depth which is scratched in the sand by the birds. The 

 nest is compactly built, being externally made of dead weed 

 stalks, coarse grasses and sedges, and bits of moss, lined with 

 finer bleached blades of a sedge (^Careoc^ and sometimes a few 

 horse hairs. Two sets of five and three of four eggs were 

 secured by Dr. Dwight. He gives the average size as 0.85 x 

 0.61, or slightly larger than those of the Savanna Sparrow. 

 The ground color is bluish or grayish white, often so washed 

 with brown as to appear olive brown, usually so splashed and 

 sprinkled with different shades of umber and vandyke brown 

 as to almost conceal the color of the shell. In many cases the 

 blotches aggregate to form a ring about the larger ends of the 

 eggs, while there are also purplish and grayish brown mark- 

 ings which are less observable. Many eggs have a few irregu- 

 lar hair lines of deep brown, and the eggs of the same set 

 vary much in coloration. The nests are always on the ground, 

 either in the grass, under a sod or other shelter or in under 

 various bushes. 



The summer food consists chiefly of insects, being about 

 75.5 ^0 animal matter. The winter food consists of 57.8 /o 

 vegetable matter, 34.9 i<J gravel and sand, and only 7.3 Jo ani- 

 mal matter. The summer food is beetles, grasshoppers, ants, 

 bugs, spiders, flies, snails, etc., and some seeds of grasses and 

 weeds. The winter food is largely grass seeds and a few 

 weed seeds. Practically all the data regarding the habits and 

 including the description of the species is taken from Dr. 

 Dwight's Monograph, "The Ipswich Sparrow and its Summer 

 Home," to which those desiring a fuller account are referred. 



