OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 245 



223. MELOSPIZA LINCOLNI (Aud.). 583. 

 Lincoln's Sparrovr. 



Below white, breast banded and sides often shaded with yellowish ; every- 

 where, except on the belly, thickly and sharply streaked with dusky ; above 

 grayish-brown, crown and back with blackish, brownish and paler streaks ; 

 tail grayish -brown, the feathers usually showing blackish shaft lines; wings 

 the same, the coverts and inner quills blackish, with bay and whitish edgings ; 

 no yellow on wings or head. Length, 5J ; wing and tail, about 2§. 



Hab. North America at large, breeding chiefly north of the United 

 States and in the higher parts of the Rocky Mountains ; south in winter to 

 Guatemala. , 



Nest, on the ground ; composed of grass throughout, the finest used for 

 lining inside. 



Eggs, 4 to 6; grayish-white clouded with brown. 



Nest and eggs scarcely distinguishable from those of the Song Sparrow. 



This retiring little Sparrow is almost unknown in the east, 

 although it has been found at a number of different points, and 

 from its retiring habits may be more common than we think it is. 



Audubon found it first in Labrador, the young being able to 

 fly on 4th of July. It has occasionally been captured durmg 

 the season of migra^tion, chiefly in Massachusetts and Connecti- 

 cut, and there is in a Bulletin of the Nuttal Club, 1878, an 

 account of a nest being found by Mr. Bagg in Hamilton Co., N. Y. 



Ontario was without a record of this species till the 23rd of 

 May, 1885, when K. C. Mcllwraith got into a bird wave which had 

 been stopped at the Beach by a head wind during the previous 

 night, and from a crowd composed of different classes in large 

 numbers, picked out two Lincoln's Sparrows, and on the 25th 

 he got other two at the same place. Since that time Mr. 

 Geo. R. White reports having taken one at Ottawa, and Mr. 

 Saunders has also secured one at London. 



In the west the history of the species is entirely different. 

 Mr. Trippe, writing from Colorado, says : " Lincoln's Finch is 

 abundant and migratory, it breeds from about g.500 or 10.000 

 feet up to the timber line. It arrives at Idaho Springs early in 

 May and soon becomes very common, haunting the thickets and 

 brush heaps by the brooks, and behaving very much like the 



