430 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



The old birds always make a great protest when nests with 

 young are approached. When incubating the female usually 

 does not fly off" until almost stepped upon, though sometimes 

 when the alarm is given by the male she will sneak away from 

 the nest in the manner of the White-throated Sparrow, 



The young are fed chiefly on insects, worms, beetles, grubs, 

 flies, caterpillars, grasshoppers and similar insects. The old 

 birds in spring and old and young in fall depend largely on 

 seeds of various grasses and weeds, also taking a very consid- 

 erable proportion of insect food. In summer the insect food 

 is fully seventy-five per cent of their diet, while in fall and 

 spring it is only about twenty-five per cent. They are very 

 beneficial as a rule. Small fruits and berries, seemingly only 

 the wild varieties, are occasionally eaten. 



583. Melospiza lincolnii {And.}. Lincoln's Sparrow; Lin- 

 coln's Finch. Tom's Finch. 



Plumage of adults : above wood brown, streaked with black ; wings and 

 tail blackish, edged with brown ; below white, streaked with black except on 

 abdomen; a deep pinkish buff band across the throat and similar stripe 

 either side of throat and sides similarly tinged. Immature plumage : streaks 

 more suffused and less sharply defined ; otherwise similar. 



Geog. Dist. — North America, chiefly the eastern sections ; breeding from 

 northern Illinois, the Adirondack Mountains and prohahhj from northern 

 Maine northward ; wintering from southern Illinois to Mexico. 



County Records. — Aroostook ; a not rare bird of the Woolastook Valley in 

 early July and August, which facts surely point to its breeding there, 

 (Knight). Cumberland ; a female shot at Westbrook, September 20, 1896, 

 by Arthur H. Norton, (L. B. Me. p. 101) ; one taken at North Bridgton by 

 J. C. Mead in 1879, in Bridgton Academy collection, (Mead, J. M. 0. S. 1899, 

 p. 31) ; a male taken at Westbrook September 25, 1897, and another May 18, 

 1900, (Norton, J. M. 0. S. 1904, p. 55). Penobscot; one shot in quite heavy 

 woods near Bangor, May 18, 1882, (Newell Eddy) ; spring and fall migrant 

 of regular occurrence and probably full more frequent than records would 

 indicate, (Knight). Sagadahoc; one taken at Seguin September 11 and 

 another September 24, 1898, and four observed in 1899 between October 6 

 and 13, (Spinney, J. M. 0. S. 3, pp. 19-20 and 5, pp. 56, 57, 58 and also Norton, 

 ibid. 6, p. 55). Washington ; rare and in spring only, (Boardman). 



Lincoln's Sparrow has only been recorded, as far as I am 



able to ascertain, from the above given sections of the State, 



