9 



loscjs itself in an extensive marsli. Following the line of shore between 

 the lake and marsh and a rod or so back from the waters edge, a road has 

 been graded across the marsh. An improvement company have obtained 

 control of the road, macadamized it, and it is one of the popular and much 

 used drives out of the city. My acquaintence with their nesting might 

 bo still furtlier limited to a strip three rods wide on either side of the road. 

 But ill this strip these sparrows are certainly very abundant breeders. 

 In one place I took five nests of eggs from a strip on the lake side of tlie 

 road not over four rods long. 



After a great deal of chattering and quarrelling, they finally settled 

 down to active nesting operations about the first of May. Along the 

 sides of the above mentioned road there is a rank growth of rashes, or 

 rather once was. These rushes, now dead and yellow, are thickly matted 

 and bent over so as to form a very obscure cover for the nests, and it is in 

 tliese tJiat must all my nests have been found. In 1896 four nests were 

 obtained within reach of the road. All but one were securely concealed 

 in a bent over matted bunch of rushes, the only "give away" being a few 

 grasses left about the approach to the nest in building. These grasses 

 were tlie same that grew abundantly among the rushes, but a sort of or- 

 der in the way they lay attracted ones attention. The birds were very 

 hard to fiush. seldom leaving until one began to tear the bunch of rushes 

 to pieces. From the three above nests three sets of five eggs were secur- 

 ed, one May 13, 189(5, and two May 18th, all with incubation barely begun. 

 The fourth nest, however, differed materially in situation. It was in a 

 rather open place, where the stiff three cornered reeds we are all familiar 

 with had been cut off a foot above the water and still r(nnained standing. 

 The nest, within a yard of the wagon track, was attached to a bunch of 

 these rushes, after the manner of a Red-wings: It was not only visible 

 but euiispicuous from the road, the eggs being plainly seen by one riding 

 by. Five days after the first egg was laid, I took three eggs on the :.'()tli 

 of May. The nest was about six inclies above the water, as were tlie three 

 above mentionetl. All tlie nests found so far were practically identical in 

 composition, coinposfnl principally, as I liinteii aboN'c. of tlie semi-coarse 

 grasses near at hand. The}' w('r<' lined with fine roiiiul steins, only in one 

 or two instances was there a snggi'stion of horse hair. 



Ill '97 I was able to cover a slightly larger area with boots, hut althongji 

 1 wandered over a large marsli and saw Swamp Sparrows not uiifrcqucnt- 

 ly acting as if they had' nests, I was unable to find any nests over three 

 rotls from the aliox'e mentioned road. This. I taivc it is due to the fact 

 that these patches or dead rushes, wiiich seem to be so congenial to the 

 sparrows only aliiuuKl in the vicinit} of the road, while further away one 

 iinds a sea of grass, in which it is almost impossible to locate a nest, ex- 

 cept liy chance, unless the bird is Hushed. This spring. '97. in all. six 

 nests were examined, of tliese all but one were well concealed uiidei' the 

 bent over rushes, tlie other being in the situation of a Re(l-\Ving"s and 

 farthest from the road, about three rods. Of tliese. on May 19tli. oiu' set 

 of two eggs of tlie sparrow with two Cow-Birds" eggs and another of four 

 .Sjiarrows' w(M'e tak'en. incnliati(ni wo]] begun. On Ma}' ■.".'nd. two sets of 



