FINCHES. 255 



Under parts light brownish yellow, paler on the throat and abdomen. The jugulum. 

 npperpart of the breast, and the sides of the body conspicuously streaked with black. 

 Edge of wing yellow. A strong tinge of pale chestnut on the wings and tail. The median 

 tail-feathers and upper coverts chestnut or rufous brown, with sharply defined shaft- 

 Btreaks of black. Length, 5.25; wing, 2.15; tail, 2.15." (Hist. N. Am. B.) 



This species is related to C. passerinus, but readily distinguished 

 by the well-marked streaks on breast and sides, the greenish yellow, 

 not chestnut-brown, of head and nape, and the two mandibular 

 dusky stripes. The middle tail-feathers are reddish with only a very 

 narrow sharply defined median shaft-streak of black, instead of 

 having the greater portion of the centre dusky with scalloped edges. 



Henslow's Sparrow is an exceedingly common or even abundant 

 species in Illinois, but is much more local than its relative, the 

 Yellow-winged Sparrow. The writer first met with it on Fox Prarie, 

 Eichland county, in June, 1871, having his attention attracted to it 

 by its peculiar note. It was very abundant, the males being perched 

 on tall weed-stalks, uttering incessantly their rude and feeble, but 

 emphatic "song" sounding like pil'lut, or se'ivick, the head being 

 thrown back and the tail inclining forward underneath the bird, in 

 the manner of C. passerinus. Twelve years later it was exceedingly 

 numerous on the small remaining patch of open prairie (160 acres 

 in extent) in the same locality, and also in a similar bit of prairie 

 of equal extent which marked the last vestige of the once exten- 

 sive but since populous and well-cultivated Sugar Creek Prairie, 

 several miles to the southeast. 



These birds lie very close, allowing themselves to be almost trod- 

 den on before flying; and, notwithstanding a very large number of 

 females were shot which had evidently been startled from their 

 nests, only one nest could be found. They had probably run some 

 distance through the grass before flying, thus rendering search 

 fruitless. 



Mr. Nelson states that in Cook county it is a rather common 

 resident on the prairies, arriving May 12 to 20, and leaving the 

 first of September. In Bichland county the writer found it exceed- 

 ingly numerous during the latter part of October, 1882, in company 

 with smaller numbers of C. lecontei, inhabiting the dead grass in 

 the damper portions of the meadows. Mr. H. K. Coale writes me 

 that he found it to be a common summer resident in a certain 

 piece of wet prairie overgrown with bushes at Toleston, Lake county, 

 Indiana. 



