Vol. XVIII 

 igoi 



J 'Pka^ot>\', Ncsfiiio- Habifs of Leco?i/e's Sparrow. 1 ^ "^ 



The average of 27 specimens is .715 x .542. My tables show 

 a marked uniformity in the shorter, and an equally marked diver- 

 gence in the longer, diameters. 



In coloration, the eggs of the same set show a marked uniform- 

 ity. This is the more striking since the range of coloration is 

 very great. Set i is most beautiful, its three eggs being so over- 

 clouded with a marbUng of rich dark brown that the ground color 

 is quite obscured ; while set 2, taken the following year, has the 

 ground-color of a clear, pale blue, with exquisite gray-brown stip- 

 plings and hair-lines about a very narrow area at the apex. 



In brief, normal nests of Leconte's Sparrow are located in dense 

 fallen grass, well concealed, with the bottom about eight inches 

 above the ground ; the deep-cupped and remarkably neat nest 

 will generally have a few of the standing stems interwoven with 

 the outer nest material ; the eggs are well rounded, as a rule with 

 clear markings, tending to cluster at the apex. Add to these facts 

 the further one that, to one who is familiar with this bird in the 

 hand, there should be no great difficulty in recognizing A. lecontei 

 instantly as it is flushed, identification being not so difficult as we 

 have been led to suppose. 



To the fourteen nests here catalogued should be added, prob- 

 ably, a fifteenth. It was located, like the other upland nests 

 noted, near the margin between the meadow and the upland. It 

 was but scantily hidden, and its (small) eggs were, in shape and 

 color, like blue-tinted eggs of the Song Sparrow. The parent 

 was exceptionally wild. Failing to establish identity clearly by 

 flushing, I set a trap which was sprung by the bird. My final 

 attempt to shoot the parent resulted in her flushing at long range 

 and escaping my shot, only to desert the nest. This nest, how- 

 ever, in structure and in size, is undoubtedly referable to this spe- 

 cies, as the bird was too small for a Savanna Sparrow. This 

 would give only one fifth of the nests found as upland nests ; that 

 sort of location proving thus to be exceptional. 



The conditions of the finding of nest i were so novel, yet so 

 characteristic, that one may be pardoned for adding the story here. 

 While crossing, in my buggy, an area of about an acre of prairie 

 that was densely carpeted with heavy grass, laid smoothly down 

 by the snow of the previous winter, my sight was arrested by a 



