84 Bird Studies. 



head and top of the head, and gradually shades to a brighter olive on the 

 lower back and rump. The wings and tail are dusky gray, and the exposed 

 edges of the feathers of the tail and of the larger feathers of the wing are 

 olive green. There is a well defined grayish white line above the eye and 

 reaching well back on the side of the head. The lower parts are whitish, 

 washed with faint yellowish on the breast, and more distinct greenish yellow 

 on the sides, flanks, and feathers below the tail. The birds build pensile or 

 semi-pensile nests of various vegetable fibres and grasses well woven together. 

 The location chosen is a fork on an outer branch, sometimes low but gener- 

 ally high up in the tree. Four white eggs are laid. They are sparingly 

 marked about the larger end with dots and flecks of dark brown almost black. 

 The eggs are about three quarters of an inch long and upward of half an 

 inch broad. 



Lincoln's Finch or Sparrow is about five inches and three quarters long. 



The upper parts are brownish olive, of a rather gray tone, very definitely 



streaked with black. The top of the head is purer deep 



Lincoln's Sparrow, brown streaked with black and a line of gray divides the 



Melospiza lincolnii (Aud.1. . 



crown in the centre. The lower parts are white streaked 

 narrowly with black, particularly on the sides and flanks. There is a broad 

 band of light buff across the breast, a stripe of like color on either side of the 

 throat, and the sides and flanks are washed with a similar shade. 



These birds nest in a manner similar to their congeners the Swamp 

 and Song Sparrows, and lay four or five pale green or light buff colored 

 eggs heavily spotted and marked with reddish brown and dark lilac. The 

 eggs are less than four fifths of an inch long and a little less than three fifths 

 of an inch broad. 



This Sparrow is found throughout North America at large. They breed 

 in Eastern North America from Northern New York and Northern Illinois 

 northward. They winter from Southern Illinois south to Panama. 



Lincoln's Finch is not a common bird in the States east of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, but is of regular occurrence during the migrations in spring and 

 fall. With many wren-like habits it avoids observation, stealing along 

 through this or that tangle of bushes and weeds about the edges of fields 

 and swamps and in stone walls and thickets along the highway. The birds 

 are therefore probably more common in the Atlantic States than is generally 

 supposed. 



