BIRDS OB" KAN* A*. 471 



over a foot from the ground. They are loosely constructed of 

 dry grasses, and lined with finer leaves of the same and hairs. 

 Eggs, usually three or four; pure white; in form, oval. 



GENUS MELOSPIZA BAIRD. 



"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 little longer than the inner; 

 its claw not quite reaching to the base of the middle one. Hind toe appreciably 

 longer than the middle one. Wings quite short and rounded, scarcely reach- 

 ing the base of the tail; the tertials considerably 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 graduated; the 

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

 and streaked; beneath thickly streaked, except in M. ge&rgiana. Tail immacu- 

 late. Usually nest on the ground; nests strongly woven of grasses and fibrous 

 stems; eggs marked with rusty brown and purple, on a ground of clay color." 



Melospiza fasciata (GMEL.). 



SONG SPARROW. 

 PLATE XXVIII. 



Winter sojourner; rare; common in the eastern part of the 

 State during migration, rare in the western portion. Leave in 

 March; begin to return in October. 



In my "Catalogue of the Birds of Kansas," they are entered 

 as "Resident in eastern Kansas; rare in summer." I am now 

 led to think the evidence upon which I based the same is not re- 

 liable, and that they seldom nest in their western range much 

 if any south of latitude 41. 



B. 363. R. 231. C. 244. G. 114, 235. U. 581. 



HABITAT. Eastern United States and British provinces; west 

 to the base of the Rocky Mountains; breeding from eastern 

 Dakota, northern Illinois, Virginia, etc., northward. 



SP. CIIAK. "General tint of upper parts rufous and distinctly streaked with 

 rufous brown, dark brown and ashy gray. The crown is rufous, with a super- 

 ciliary and median stripe of dull gray, the former lighter; nearly white anteri- 

 orly, where it sometimes has a faint shade of yellow, principally in autumn; 

 each feather of the crown with a narrow streak of black, forming about six 

 narrow lines. Interscapulars black in the center, then rufous, then pale grayish 

 on the margin, these three colors on each feather very sharply contrasted. 



