FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



295 



parts. This song is often uttered while the bird takes a short flight 

 upward; it then drops down again into the tangled weeds and grasses, 

 where it is almost impossible to follow it" (Hull. N'ltt. Orn. Club, vi, 

 1881, p. 57). 



648. Anunodramiui lecontei (.!»'/.). LEcnNTK'sSrAnitow. Ad.— 



No yt'lli)w but'ore tlic i-yc or on tlic buiKl of the wiii}^ ; u broiul oehraccous-butf 

 line over tlio eye, and a creuni-butt line tiirough the center of the bla(.'ki«li 

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

 an asliy border; back black, the feathers inarfjiued first by rufous, then creani- 

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

 the shaft: the featliers narrow and sliarply pointed, the outer oi\{!» much tlio 

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

 black; belly white. L., S'O'J; W., 2'00; T., 2-Or); B., -35. 



EaiKje. — " (ircat Plains and more western prairies, breeding from Dakota, 

 Minnesota, etc., to Manitoba, nngrating soutliward and castwanl, in winter, 

 through Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, etc., to South Carolina, and Gulf States from 

 Florida to Texas" (Kidgw.). 



xVf,s'^, of tine grasses, on the ground. E(jgi^., three, delicate pink, lightly 

 spotted with brownish and black near tlie larger end, -70 x -oO (Thompson). 



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 Lecoide'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. 100). 



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 grasshopper." 



649. Ammodramus caudacutus (Omcl.). Siiaim'-t.mi.kd Spar- 

 how. Aii. — (icncral color of the upper parts a brownish olive-green; crown 

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

 closed by ocliraceous-butl' lines, one of which passes over tlu; eye and one 

 down the side of the throat; featliers of tlie liack martrincd with grayish and 

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

 sharply jiointctl, the outer feathers nnich the shortest; l)rcast and sides 

 washed with butty, paler in sunnncr, and (iisthn-th/ streaked with bliu-k ; 

 middle of the throat and belly white or whitish. " L., 5-85 ; W., 2-30 ; T., l-'JO ; 

 B., -no" (1) wight). 



