FRINGILLID/E — THE FINCHES. 551 



were in ijreat iiuiubers in ull the pine l)arien.s of tliat State, in li<j:lit and 

 sandy soil, and in woods bnt tliinly overgrown by taH pines. Tliey never 

 aliglit on trees, but spend tlieir time on the ground, running with great ra- 

 pidity through the grass, in tlie inanner of a mouse. 



In New .Jersey thev were found in jdcjughed tiehls, wliere they are pre- 

 sumed to ha^e beer ovei'looked and mistaken for the Vellow-winged Spar- 

 row. 'Mv. AucUiboij supposed tliat they were not found farther eastward 

 than that State. 



Specimens in tlie Smithsonian eoHection have been procured in ( Georgia 

 in December ; in Marvhmd in July ; at Fort llilev, Kansas, Southern lUi- 

 nois, and in Xehraska, in June. 



In Ma^ssaclmsetts they are regular summer visitants, though as yet tliey 

 have been met witli in only a few inshmees and in a somewhat restricted 

 locality. They are now met with nearly every year, and several nests have 

 been taken. ^Ir. ^laynard obtained two specimens, ^lay 10, in a wet 

 meadow in Xewton. Their song-note he descril)es as like the syllables sec- 

 wid; the lii-st syllable prolonged, the latter giveh (piickly. This bird was 

 first obtained in Berlin, in that State, by ^Ir. E. S. Wlieeler, who discovered 

 its nest and eggs. It was mistaken for Bachman's F'inch, and was at fii-st 

 so placed on the record, though the error was immediately corrected. Since 

 then, in tliat town, and in one or two others in its neighborhood, other nests 

 have been met with. Mr. William Brewster obtained several specimens in 

 Lexington, May 14, 1872. It is quite probable that it has been confounded 

 with C'.^>^?.S6Yr/« ?<.<?, and it is now supposed to ha more common in the eastern 

 part of the State than that bird. 



One specimen of this Bunting was taken near Washington, during the 

 summer season, from whicli circumstance Dr. Coues gives it as an exceed- 

 ingly rare summer resident of the District of Columbia. 



In 1871, Mr. Bidgway ascertained that, so far from being rare, Henslow's 

 Bunting is very abundant on the prairies of Southern Illinois, as well as the 

 Yellow-winged species, but far exceeding the latter in numbei-s. Though 

 entirely similar to that bird in habits and manners, it may Ije readily distin- 

 guished by its note, which is said to be an abrupt ^j //-/?</, much more like tlie 

 common summer-call of the Shore Lark than the lisped grassho|)per-like 

 chirp of the 0. passa-inits, and to be uttered as the bird perches on the sum- 

 mit of a tall weed, the tail being depressed, and the head thrown back at 

 each utterance. A number of unidentitied eggs were sent to me several 

 years since, by Mr. Kennicott, from near Chicago. They resembled some- 

 what the eggs of C. jmsscrinv.s, but were not the eggs of that species. I 

 have now no doubt they belonged to this bird. 



The nest is built in the ground, in a depression, or apparently an excava- 

 tion scratched out bv the bird itself, and is a well-made structure of coarse, 

 dry, and soft reeds and grasses, well lined with finer materials of the same 

 description. The eggs, five or six in number, somewhat resemble those of 



