FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 391 



548. Passerherbulus lecontei (And.). LECONTE'S SPARROW. Ads. 

 No yellow before the eye or on the bend of the wing; a broad ochraceous-buff 

 line over the eye, and a cream-buff line through the center of the blackish 

 crown; nape rufous-brown, each feather with a small black central spot and 

 an ashy border; back black, the feathers margined first by rufous, then cream- 

 buff and whitish; tail grayish brown, with a slight rufous tinge, darker along 

 the shaft; the feathers narrow and sharply pointed, the outer ones much the 

 shortest; breast and sides tinged with buffy, and more or less streaked* with 

 black; belly white. L., 5'00; W., 2'00; T., 2'05; B., '35. 



Range. Cen. N. Am. Breeds in Canadian and Transition zones from 

 Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie, s. Sask., and Man., s. to N. D. and s. Minn.; 

 winters from s. Kans., and s. Mo., to Tex., Fla., and the coast of S. C., and 

 occasionally to N. C.; casual in Ont. and N. Y.; accidental in Idaho and 

 Colo. 



Glen Ellyn, not common T. V., May 4-?; Sept. 8-Oct. 6. SE. Minn., 

 uncommon S. R., May 1-Oct. 17. 



Nest, of fine grasses, on the ground. Eggs, 3-5, delicate pink, lightly 

 spotted with brownish and black near the larger end, *75 x '50 (Seton). 

 Date, Raeburn, Man., June 6. 



My experience on the coast of Texas with this elusive little Spar- 

 row conforms with that of most observers, and the few specimens I 

 found were in wet marshes. Mr. L. M. Loomis, however, tells us that 

 at Chester, South Carolina, where Leconte's Sparrow is a locally com- 

 mon winter visitant, it shows a marked preference for dry 'old fields 

 of broom sedge (Auk, II, 1885, p. 190). 



Few birds are more difficult to flush. It exhibits a rail-like disin- 

 clination to take wing, and flying low and feebly, makes for the nearest 

 cover. Ernest Thompson Seton records it as an abundant summer resi- 

 dent in, the willow sloughs and grassy flats of Manitoba, and describes 

 its call-notes as a thin, sharp, ventriloquial tweet, and a single, long- 

 drawn bizz; while its song, which is delivered from some low perch a 

 little above the grass, is a tiny, husky, double-noted reese, reese, "so 

 thin a sound and so creaky, that I believe it is usually attributed to a 

 grasshopper." 



1901. PEABODY, P. B., Auk, XVIII, 129-134 (nesting). 



549. Passerherbulus caudacutus (GmeL). SHARP-TAILED SPAR- 

 HOW. Ads. General color of the upperparts a brownish olive-green; crown 

 olive-brown, with a blue-gray line through its center; gray ear-coverts, in- 

 closed by ochraceous-buff lines, one of which passes over the eye and one 

 down the side of the throat; feathers of the back margined with grayish and 

 sometimes whitish; bend of the wing yellow; tail-feathers narrow and 

 sharply pointed, the outer feathers much the shortest; breast and sides 

 washed with buffy, paler in summer, and distinctly streaked with black; 

 middle of the throat arid belly white or whitish. "L., 5'85; W., 2'30; T., 1'90; 

 B., '50" (Dwight). 



Remarks. The chief points of difference between this and the two fol- 

 lowing birds arc found in the markings of the breast and sides. In the pres- 

 ent species these parts are pale ochraceous-buff, distinctly streaked with 

 blackish; in nelsoni they are deep ochraceous-buff, lightly if at all streaked ; 

 in subvirgatus they are cream-buff, indistinctly streaked with grayish. 



Range. Salt marshes of Atlantic coast. Breeds in Alleghanian and 

 Carolinian faunas from Mass, to Va. ; winters on salt marshes from N. J. 

 (casually from Mass.) to Fla. 



' Cambridge, formerly common S. R., but occurs no longer. 



