3l8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Melospiza lincolni lincolni (Audubon) 

 Lincoln Sparrow 



Plate 84 



Fringilla lincolnii Audubon. Birds Amer. 1834. (folio) 2. pi. 193 

 Emboriza lincolni DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 162 

 Melospiza lincolni lincolni A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 276. 

 No. 5S3 



lincolni, to Robert Lincoln, a friend of Audubon 



Description. Slightly smaller than the Song sparrow; tail especially, 

 being slenderer and shorter. Upper parts olive brown to grayish brown, 

 rather sharply streaked with blackish; a narrow grayish line through the 

 center of the crown and broader superciliary lines of the same color; also 

 gray tinged on the side of the neck; wings and tail mostly plain hair brown; 

 throat and abdomen whitish, the former lightly streaked with blackish; 

 a broad huffy band across the breast; sides and flanks buffy, the breast and 

 sides rather sharply but narrowly streaked with black, but there is no tendency 

 to form a central blotch of black on the breast, and the heavy submalar 

 streaks of the Song sparrow wanting, but narrow rictal and postocular 

 streaks of blackish are evident. 



Length 5.4-5.9 inches; wing 2.3-2.6; tail 2.3-3; bill .41; tarsus .78. 



Distribution. This species breeds in the boreal zone of North America 

 from the Yukon valley, southern Mackenzie, central Keewatin and northern 

 Ungava to northern Minnesota, central Ontario, northern New York and 

 Nova Scotia, as well as in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains; winters 

 from California, Oklahoma and Mississippi to southern Mexico and 

 Guatemala. In New York it is a summer resident of the Adirondack 

 district and a transient visitant in other parts of the State, arriving from 

 the 3d to the 9th of May and passing northward from the 10th to the 16th 

 of May. In the fall it appears from the 15th to the 30th of September 

 and is last noticed from the 8th to the 27th of October, sometimes as late 

 as November 27 (Braislin, page 84). 



Haunts and habits. In the Adirondacks I found this bird very diffi- 

 cult to observe due to its shy, retiring habits. It was present, however, 

 in the spruce and tamarack swamps of Essex county as well as in Hamilton 

 and Herkimer counties. Where the swamp is open, with small spruces 



