282 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



After leaving this locality the species was lost sight of until the 

 llth of August following, upon our return to Mount Carmel. At 

 the latter place it was found to be rather rare in certain places 

 just outside the town limits, the localities frequented being invari- 

 ably neglected weedy fields in which scattered dead trees were stand- 

 ing. Unlike most birds, this species sang with the greatest vigor, 

 and frequently during the sultry midday, when the sky was bright- 

 est and the heat intense the thermometer ranging from 90 to 103 

 in the shade. The song, while reminding one somewhat of the 

 plaintive chant of the Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla), was far sweeter 

 and altogether louder ; the modulation, as nearly as can be expressed 

 in words, resembling the syllables theeeeeee-thut, lut, lut, lut, the first 

 being a rich silvery trill, pitched in a high musical key, the other 

 syllables also metallic, but abrupt, and lower in tone. 



In July and August, 1875, several specimens of this species were 

 collected by Messrs. E. W. Nelson and F. T. Jencks in the vicinity 

 of Mount Carmel and on Fox Prairie, the latter in Richland county, 

 about thirty-five miles to the northward of Mount Carmel. Mr. 

 Nelson thus records his observations (Bull. Essex Inst., Vol. IX., p. 

 38): 



"Rather common. Those obtained were 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. One was observed singing from a fence stake, but seeing 

 the intruder it stopped abruptly and darted into a patch of weeds." 



GENUS MELOSPIZA BAIRD. 



Melospiza BATED, Birds N. Am. 1858, 478. Type, Fringllla melodia WILS., F. fasciata 

 GMEL. 



"GEN. CHAE. Body stout. Bill conical, very obsoletely notched, or smooth; somewhat 

 compressed. Lower mandible not so deep as the upper. Commissure nearly straight, 

 Gonys a little curved. Feet stout, not stretching beyond the tail; tarsus a little longer 

 than the middle toe; outer toe a litle longer than the inner; its claws not quite reaching 

 to the base of the middle one. Hind toe appreciably longer than the middle one. Wings 

 quite short and rounded, scarcely reaching beyond the base of the tail; the tertials con- 

 siderably longer than the secondaries; the quills considerably graduated; the fourth 

 longest; the first not longer than the tertials, and almost the shortest of the primaries. 

 Tail moderately long, rather longer from coccyx than the wings, and considerably gradu- 

 ated; the feathers oval at the tips, and not stiffened. Crown and back similar in color, 

 and streaked; beneath thickly streaked, except in M. georgiana. Tail immaculate. 

 Usually nest on ground; nests strongly woven of grasses and fibrous stems; eggs marked 

 with rusty brown and purple on a ground of a clay color." 



