96G Report of State Geologist. 



Bachman's Sparrow was ■first reported from the lower Wabash 

 A'alley by Mr. Robert Ridgway, who noted it early in June, 1871, 

 about half way between Mt. Carmel and Olney, 111. i\.ugust 11, 1871, 

 he found it rather rare at Mt. Carmel. In July and August, 1875, 

 Messrs. E. W. Xelson and F. T. Jcneks took several specimens in 

 the vicinity of Mt. Carmel and on Fox Prairie, in Richland County, 

 about thirty-five miles to the northward of Mt. Carmel (Ridgway, 

 Birds of 111., I., pp. 381, 282). April 26, 1881, Mr. Ridgway found it 

 near Wheatland, Knox County, Ind., and nearly ten years later in- 

 formed me it was not uncommon in all parts of Knox County that 

 he had visited. April 24, 1884, Prof. W. S. Blatchley took two 

 Bachman's Sparrows from a brush pile in Monroe County. That was 

 its first record there. It appeared regularly thereafter between 

 April 6 (1885) and April 29 (1886). In 1886 two sets of eggs were 

 found and, perhaps, a half dozen birds taken (Evermann). It was 

 first noted in Putnam County by Mr. Alexander Black, April 18, 

 1891, and has appeared regularly there since, between April 7 and 

 18. It is tolerably common there now (1897). May 15, 1893, Mr. 

 Jesse Earlle took a nest and four eggs, but slightly incubated, near 

 Greencastle. He flushed the parent from the nest and shot her. 

 The nest was placed on the ground, at the edge of a little patch of 

 woods, in a blue grass pasture. It was composed of grass, and re- 

 minded him of the nest of a Meadow Lark. It was not arched over. 

 The eggs were pure white. Mr. V. H. Barnett first observed it in 

 Brown County, in 1894. He took its nest and four eggs near Spears- 

 ville, in the southern part of that county. May 22, 1894. He ob- 

 served it April 1, 1895, and April 7, 1897. He found it July 30, 

 1897, in Parke Count}', and last saw it September 10, 1897, in Ver- 

 million County. He writes he did not see it north of southern War- 

 ren County. In Kentucky, the late Mr. C. W. Beckham found it in 

 Nelson County, April 28, 1877 (Ky. Geol. Surv., Birds of Nelson Co., 

 p. 28). Mr. Ridgway says it frequents weedy fields, in which scat- 

 tered dead trees are standing. IMr. Nelson (Bull. Essex Inst., Vol. 

 IX., p. 38) says it was "found about the fences or brush piles in 

 half cleared fields. They were shy, and quite difficult to secure, 

 from their habit of diving into the nearest shelter when alarmed, or 

 skulking. Wren-like, along the fences, dodging from rail to rail." 



Their song has been said by more than one to recall the effort of 

 the Field Sparrow. j\Ir. Ridgway says it resembles the syllables 

 the-e-e-e-e-e-e-fhut, hit, hit, hit, the first being a rich, silvery trill, 

 pitched in a high musical key, the other syllables also metallic, but 

 abrupt, and lower in tone. They sing throughout the day, and even 



