314 NOTES ON THE 
five, but Mr. Samuels records one instance in which there were 
nine. They are pure white, speckled with reddish-brown, 
principally around the larger end. They arrive in this section 
about the 10th of May and bring out the first of their two 
broods about the middle of June. They leave the State, so 
far as I have been able to determine, about the first of October, 
although an occasional individual may linger still later. I 
found it in Grant county in considerable numbers as late as the 
time mentioned. It was on high and dry prairies. Mr. Wash- 
burn reports it in company with the Sharp-tailed Finch in the 
Red river valley about the first of September. Its character- 
istic song to my ears bears no other comparison than to a sound 
produced by running the finger nail rather deliberately over 
the tense teeth of a large fine-toothed comb, five or six times 
in succession. It also has a rather weak chirp when unem- 
ployed in this humble song. Some persons mention an almost 
invariable warble as preluding the song-strains, but I have 
never detected it with sufficient certainty to record it. 
Notr.—Mr. Washburn remarks in his note upon this 
species:—‘‘Frequently heard; and one specimen secured in 
Norman county, August 4th, measuring 4.75; 2.00; 2.00. The 
peculiar chirping, grasshopper-like note of this species, fitly 
compared by Dr. Hatch to the sound made by drawing the 
point of a knife across the teeth of a fine-toothed comb, is 
very deceptive. In August the note is short and rarely given; 
and when it is given, is so low that unless one is a very quick 
observer he cannot determine the locality of the bird’s perch.” 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Feathers of upper parts brownish-rufous, margined nar- 
rowly and abruptly with ash color, reddish on the lower part 
of back and rump; feathers all abruptly black in the central 
portion; this color visible on the interscapular region where 
the rufous is more restricted; crown blackish, with a central 
and superciliary stripe of yellowish, tinged with brown, 
brightest in front of the eye; bend of wing bright yellow; 
lesser coverts tinged with greenish-yellow; quills and _ tail 
feathers edged with whitish; tertiaries much variegated; 
lower parts brownish-yellow, nearly white on the middle of 
the belly; feathers of the upper breast and sides of body with 
obsolete darker centres. 
Length, 5; wing, 2.40; tail, 2. 
Habitat, eastern United States and southern Canada to the 
Plains. 
