946 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



or cream; stripe over the eye, buff; a black stripe behind the eye; nape, 

 reddish-brown, feathers with black centers and whitish edges; back 

 and rest of upper parts, black, feathers edged and bordered with dif- 

 ferent shades of brown and buff and whitish; ear-coverts and lores, 

 grayish-white. Below, whitish; breast, throat and sides, washed with 

 buffy; sides, streaked with black. Immature. Similar, but more 

 buffy. 



Length, 4.40-5.50; wing, 1.87-2.06; tail, 1.87-2.25; bill, .35. 



RANGE. Eastern portion of the Great Plains, north to Manitoba. 

 Breeds from Dakota and, possibly, Iowa, north. Migrates south and 

 southeast. Winters from Illinois, South Carolina and Texas, south to 

 the Gulf of Mexico. 



See description of nest and eggs below. 



LeConte's Sparrow is only known from Indiana as a rare migrant 

 in March, April and October. March 12, 1884, 1 found a bird which I 

 could not identify at close range, sitting on a small bush near the rail- 

 road track, four miles northwest of Brookville. Backing, so as not to 

 destroy it, I shot it, and it is now in my collection. I am indebted 

 to Mr. C. E. Aiken for the following note, from Lake County, Ind.: 

 "While snipe shooting near Water Valley about April 15, 1887, I 

 caught sight of two small, yellowish Sparrows darting out of the dead 

 lopping flags of the marsh. I believed them to be this species, but 

 could not secure them for close examination. At about the same 

 season in 1889, in the same vicinity and on similar ground, I started 

 three of the same birds, and as they scurried off I shot two of them, 

 which proved to be, indeed, A. leconteii, one a male, the other a female. 

 Both specimens are preserved, and one is still in my possession. The 

 other was given to my friend, C. H. Holden, of Chicago. When 

 flushed, the birds started from thick cover close to me, flew straight 

 away from five to twenty rods, then darted again into the dead marsh 

 grass or rushes, from which I could not start them a second time. 

 The rise was not more than two feet above the grass, except in one 

 case, that of one of the birds killed, which had apparently started for 

 a long flight and was flying about four feet above the ground when 

 shot. I did not see any of them except while on the wing." 



March 30, 1892, Mr. J. E. Beasley took a bird of this species, which 

 was with two or three others, possibly of the same kind, feeding 

 among the dead grass by the side of the railroad, near Lebanon. This 

 specimen, a male, is now in the State Museum at Indianapolis. Oc- 

 tober 2, 1894, I saw a Leconte's Sparrow along the edge of a clover 

 patch near Brookville. Besides these records from Indiana, I may say 

 Mr. Eliot Blackwelder noted six at Morgan Park, 111., April 21, 1895. 



