240 REPOKT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



In the early spring we hear him tuning up, and many people think 

 he has just arrived from the south. His song is among the best of 

 our spring bird music, and sometimes I think familiarity produces 

 in us a lack of appreciation of what a fine song it really is. 



In winter the Song Sparrow is found abundantly all over the broad 

 river meadows, and along the borders of streams and ditches, flitting 

 along below the banks or among the tufts of grass. 



583 Melospiza lincolni (Audubon). 



Lincoln's Finch. 



/ 



Adults. Length, 5.50. Wing, 2.50. Upper parts, brownish-olive, sharply 

 streaked with black from head to rump ; crown with a gray median stripe and 

 a gray stripe over the eye ; under parts, white, with a broad buff band across 

 the breast and down the sides ; chest, sides, flanks and under tail-coverts 

 streaked with black. 



Rare transient visitant. Spring, May 8th; autumn, September 

 21st to October 25th. 



Similar in habits to the Song Sparrow, but much wilder and shyer. 

 Thurber mentions it as of rare occurrence in Morris county, but on 

 September 21st, 1885, he saw ten, 1 and Babson records four specimens 

 obtained near Princeton, as follows : 



October 25th, 1875. W. E. D. Scott. 



September 21st, 1878. W. E. D. Scott. 



October 7th, 1879. W. E. D. Scott. 



May 8th, 1894. H. A. Phillips. 



Mr. Chapman saw one at Englewood, September 10th, 1898. 2 



584 Melospiza georgiana (Latham). 

 Swamp Sparrow. 



PLATE 58. 



Adults. Length, 5.50. Wing, 2.35. Above, brown, broadly streaked with 

 black ; gray on the back of the neck ; crown, uniform chestnut ; forehead, 

 black, with a short gray median streak ; sides of head and neck and entire 



1 O. and O., XL, p. 92. 



2 Abst. Proc. Linn. Soc., N. Y., XL, p. 5. 



