^°r89^''] WiDMANN, Baird's a7td Lcconte's Sparroxvs. 2IQ 



135. Tardus ustulatus swainsonii. — Abundant in spring, rarelv seen in 

 fall. 



136. Merula migratoria propinqua. — Common. Breeds. Have found 

 them common also among the pines during the breeding season, fifty 

 miles from a house. 



137. Sialia arctica. — Common. Breeds among the pines on the divides ; 

 rarely seen elsewhere. 



AN HOUR WITH BAIRD'S AND LECONTE'S SPAR- 

 ROWS NEAR ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. 



BY O. WIDMANN. 



Richfield, St. Charles County, Missouri, is a station on tlie 

 Keokuk and Northwestern R. R., forty miles northwest of St. 

 Louis. I do not know who gave the name to the station, but 

 presume that it was an ornithologist, since the vicinity is an 

 exceedingly rich field for the study of birds. Oct. 13, 1894, I 

 identified fifty-five species and added fifteen more the next day. 

 In these two days I had gone over only a part of the ground, 

 mainly the wooded portion, adjacent to Cuivre River and Horse 

 Shoe Lake. The marsh had not been explored. To do this I 

 returned on the i8th, or rather, I was on the marsh before day- 

 light, watched the Meadowlarks, the Cedarbirds, the Robins, the 

 Blackbirds and Ducks leave their roosting places in the marsh ; 

 and it was here at the border of Mud Lake that I found the 

 Baird's Sparrow, two individuals, in company with other Sparrows, 

 mainly Ammodramiis and Melospiza. 



Not being a ' shootist,' I cannot lay the bird before you. I 

 have to beg you to accompany me into the field to the scene of 

 the rencounter. Mud Lake is one of a series of marsh lakes, all 

 of which are more or less connected by sloughs and are the 

 common receptacle of the precipitation in the surrounding country. 

 In times of highwater in the Mississippi River the whole system 

 is filled by backwater, pouring in through the Cuivre River and 

 overflowing the marshes, which are on that account not culti- 

 vated, except the highest levels, forming islands in the ocean of 



