ORNITHOLOGIST 



AND 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 iiniium. 



Established March 1875, 

 Joseph M. Wade, editor and publisher. 



10 cents 

 single copy. 



VOL. VI. 



ROCKVILLE, CONN., MAY, 1881. 



NO. 3 



Henslow's Sparrow, 



NESTING IN NORTHEEN CONN. 



Henslow's Sparrow, Coturniculus hens- 

 lowi, has apparently been on the increase 

 in this town (Eastford) during the last 

 five or six years. I think it was in 1876 

 that I first detected it by its note, in a 

 swampy meadow. Whenever I passed the 

 place during the season the same monoto- 

 nous sound could be heard, and the bird 

 has made his home there every year since. 

 Two years later I heard one in another 

 small meadow, not far from the first. On 

 the 6th of August 1879, I had the pleasure 

 of examining two nests of this species in a 

 single field, which a farmer had uncovered 

 the day before, while mowing. The land 

 was very high, but wet or springy, though 

 having nothing like the api:)earance of the 

 swampy places where these birds usually 

 make their home. Each nest contained 

 three eggs. One set of eggs which I took 

 was so far advanced in incubation that I 

 found it impossible to blow them. I left 

 one nest intending to return the next 

 morning with a gun for the purpose of se- 

 curing the female, but during the night 

 some animal destroyed both nest and eggs. 

 The nests were very slight structures, com- 

 posed of dry grass and lined, if lined at all, 

 with the same material, no finer than the 

 bulk of the nest. One of them was on the 

 side of a "cradle knoll" the ground all 

 around it being quite wet. The nest was 

 on level ground in a dry spot and the rim 

 was sunk to a level with the surface. The 

 bird was on the nest and at my approach 

 she slipped off and ran away through the 

 short grass very much like a mouse. The 

 eggs of this species cannot be positively 



distinguished from those of the Yellow- 

 winged Sparrow, Coturniculus passerinus. 

 In one nest the eggs were considerably 

 elongated and quite pointed at the smaller 

 end. In the other they were more nearly 

 round and not sufficiently pointed to ren- 

 der the two ends distinguishable. These 

 were undoubtedly the second layings of 

 the season, which accounts for there being 

 so few eggs. I captured one of the birds, 

 which proved to be a male, and bis plu- 

 mage, owing to the moult, was in a most 

 dilapidated condition ; minus about half 

 the tail and other feathers in proportion. 



In the afternoon of July 17th, 1880, in 

 driving from Putnam to Eastford I heard 

 five of these birds in as many different 

 places ; two in Woodstock and tlu'ee in 

 Eastford. A few days afterward I inquir- 

 ed of a farmer v ho had recently mowed a 

 meadow in which I heard one of them, if 

 he had found any birds nests there, and he 

 replied that he did mow over a "little 

 ground bird's" nest having three eggs, 

 which he described as white with brown 

 spots, but unfortunately the horse rake 

 had obliterated all traces of it. 



One morning in May, 1879, I found one 

 of these birds and undertook to capture 

 him, which proved to be no easy matter. 

 When he first rose from the ground I was 

 not ready for him and with a short flight 

 he dropped into cover. I hastened to the 

 spot where he disappeared, but when I got 

 where he was he wasn't there. After floun- 

 dering around for some time in the water 

 and over the "tussocks" I started him once 

 more, but in a direction where I was not 

 looking, and with a short flight he plunged 

 into the grass again. He had a wonder- 



