THE SWAMP SPARROW. 89 



I noted eagerly his head-stripes, similar to those of a Swamp Sparrow, hia 

 pale streaked breast, and his very demure airs. Then I retired while Mr. 

 Jones put him across the creek, where I held him for my companion to study. 

 During this whole manoeuver the bird favored us now and then with a few 

 delicate snatches of a sweet but very weak song. Is it any wonder that the 

 Lincoln Sparrow is so little known to fame? 



Further west the case is somewhat different. Mr. Trippe in writing of 

 the birds of Colorado, says, "Lincoln's Finch is abundant and migratory. It 

 breeds from about 9,500 or 10,000 feet up to the timber line. It arrives at 

 Idaho Springs early in May, and soon becomes very common, haunting the 

 thickets and brush-heaps by the brooks, and behaving very much like the Song 

 Sparrow. During the breeding season it is most abundant among the bushes 

 near and above timber line, nesting as high as it can find the shelter of wil- 

 lows and junipers. Reappearing in the valleys in October, it lingers by the 

 streams for a few weeks and then disappears." 



No. 41. 



SWAMP SPARROW. 



A. O. U. No. 584. Melospiza georgiana (Lath.). 



Description. Adult : Forehead black ; crown and occiput rich chestnut, 

 bordered posteriorly with blackish streaks ; superciliary line, and sides of head 

 and neck all around ashy gray; indistinct blackish markings on side (rictal and 

 post-ocular stripes) outlined against the gray; scapulars and interscapulars broadly 

 and strikingly streaked with black margined with rufous and buffy ; rump clearer 

 ochraceous ; tail-coverts again streaked with black on rufous ground ; tail rufous 

 with brighter edgings and dusky shafts, and sometimes indistinct fine cross-bars 

 (as in M. melodic.); wings plain rufous, coverts and inner quills with black cen- 

 ters ; edge of wing white ; below, gray or sordid white, with strong tawny wash 

 on sides, flanks and crissum, the flanks faintly streaked with black; bill black 

 above, lighter below. The purity of chestnut on head varies considerably accord- 

 ing to age and season, having a large admixture of black in younger birds, and 

 in adults in winter. In the fall also the pileum is divided by an indistinct gray 

 line, and the breast is tinged with brown. Length, about 5.75 (146.1); wing 

 2.40 (61.) ; tail 2.35 (59.7) ; bill .46 (11.7). 



Recognition Marks. Warbler size but stockier; very like a Song Sparrow, 

 but forehead black, and crown uniform chestnut ; breast not streaked. 



Nest, and eggs not clearly distinguishable from those of the Song Sparrow. 

 Eggs average perhaps a little smaller, say, .75 x .56 (19.1 x 14.2). 



General Range. Eastern North America to the Plains, north through the 

 British Provinces, including Newfoundland and Labrador. Breeds from the 



