LINCOLN'S SPARROW. 



contiguous tones. This sparrow is not an uncommon 

 resident of some of the White Mountain summits those 

 not altogether bare of vegetation. I have met the little 

 fellow on Mts. Moosilauke, Lafayette, Washington, and 

 Osceola, and on the latter's summit he was friendly enough 

 and hungry enough at the luncheon hour to take some 

 crumbs from my hand! His song bears a family likeness 

 to those of the Junco, Chippy, and Field Sparrow. 



Lincoln's This is a small boreal Sparrow, rather 



rare east of the Alleghanies; but it is not 

 Lincoln i unusual to meet him in the cool retreats 



L. 5.65 inches of scattered spruces and tamaracks in the 

 May sth and mountain regions of the northeastern 

 November ist g tates in ear j y spr i ng or autumn. An 



extremely shy bird, he is very difficult to observe 

 with any degree of satisfaction as he flees to cover 

 immediately upon the approach of an intruder, and it is 

 only with careful and stealthy movements that one may 

 secure a vantage point for a good look at him. Simi- 

 lar in markings to the Song Sparrow, to which he is closely 

 related, his coloring is much lighter or grayer, if one 

 obtains a front view and the spots on the breast are fewer 

 and slighter, only in rare cases merging into the semblance 

 of a blotch like that on the Song Sparrow;* as a rule Mu- 

 seum specimens show no blotch; the upper parts olive or 

 grayish brown streaked with sepia, throat dull white, breast 

 with a broad band of ocherous buff, and a stripe of the 

 same color outlined with sepia is at either side of the 

 throat; a tinge of buff also stains the flanks. 



Nest, built of dried grasses, fine roots, and moss, lined 

 with hairs and soft material, situated low in a shrub or 

 directly upon the ground. Egg, bluish white or china 

 white evenly flecked, or sometimes encircled at the larger 

 end with thick spots of burnt sienna brown. 



The species breeds from the Yukon Valley, Alaska, 



* Vide Bradford Torrey, in Footing it in Franconia, p. 77. I agree 

 in the effect he mentions of a running together of the dark 

 streaks, but I am sure this is produced by the displacement of 

 surface feathers showing their dark bases, 



287 



