BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 319 
in the act of singing, although more commonly they seek but a 
slight elevation for pouring out their melodious song. They 
nest on the ground with remarkable attempts at concealment, 
and the structures are not quite as artistic as many others of 
the fringilline birds, consisting mostly of rather coarse grasses 
and weeds, with a lining of fine fibrous roots. They arrive 
in the vicinity of Minneapolis and St. Paul about the 25th of 
April, and nests are generally found about the 20th of May, 
occasionally one a little earlier, and they bring out usually two 
broods before the 20th of July of about five, but often six or 
seven of each. Their size and strongly marked colorings, 
and their want of greater {caution in concealing their nests, 
makes birds and eggs both an easy prey to the smaller hawks 
or their relative numbers would be greatly increased. They 
seem to appear simultaneously all over the State according to 
reports from eight or ten counties scattered from the extreme 
southern to the northern boundary lines of the State. 
Dr. Hvoslef reports nests and eggs at Lanesboro, Fillmore 
county, on the 15th of May. P. Lewis, at Herman, Grant 
county, on the 20th of the same month. Mr. Potts, in Big 
Stone, the 17th, etc. 
The eggs are rather strikingly marked, being ‘‘white, curi- 
ously streaked in zigzag;” the markings sharply defined, and a 
rich, dark reddish brown or chocolate. They taper very little 
towards the smaller end giving them a decidedly globular form. 
These sparrows are all gone usually by the first of October, 
but a few have been seen considerably later in favorable 
autumns. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Hood chestnut, tinged with black towards the forehead, with 
a median and superciliary stripe of dirty whitish; rest of up- 
per parts pale grayish-brown, the interscapular region streaked 
with dark brown; beneath white, a round spot on the upper 
part of the breast, a maxillary stripe and a short line from the 
bill to the eye, continued faintly behind it, black. A white 
crescent under the eye, bordered below by black, and behind 
Dy chestnut. Tail feathers dark brown, tipped broadly with 
white. 
Length, 6; wing, 3.30. 
Habitat, Mississippi valley region. 
