BIRDS OF NEW YORK 295 



ing to his ear the call of the American pipit. The full song he describes 

 as considerably longer than this and generally delivered from the top of 

 a low bush. It has also a characteristic sharp, thin " sipp " which is 

 its usual alarm note. Mr Jouy writes the common call " tee-wick " and 

 says that the real song may fairly be represented by the syllables " sis- 

 r-r-rit, srit-srit.'" This song is often uttered while the bird takes a short 

 flight upward and then drops again into the tangled weeds and grasses 

 where it is impossible to follow it (N. O. C. Bui. 6: 57). In such surround- 

 ings its nest is concealed upon the ground, constructed of grasses and lined 

 with hair. The eggs are 4 or 5 in number, dull white or greenish white, 

 thickly speckled with pale reddish brown and lilac. 



Passerherbulus lecontei (Audubon) 

 Leconte Sparrow 



Plate 81 



Emberiza leconteii j\udubon. Birds Amer. 1844. 7:338. pi. 488 

 Passerherbulus lecontei A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 258. 

 No. 548 



lecontei, to Dr John L. LeConte of Philadelphia 



Description. In general resembling the Henslow sparrow, but the 

 crown stripe as well as superciliary and malar stripes light buff; sides of 

 the crown nearly black; hind neck chestnut streaked with light gray, edge 

 of the wing white; breast and sides buffy streaked with blackish but the 

 streaks on the breast faint or wanting. Young: Have the whole plumage 

 suffused with buff except the center of the abdomen. Bill much more 

 slender than that of the Henslow sparrow. 



Length 4.5-5.5 inches; wing 1.94-2. 12; tail i. 82-2. 06; exposed bill 

 .34-. 42; depth of bill .2-. 23; tarsus .68-.75; middle toe .62. 



Distribution. The Leconte sparrow inhabits central North America 

 from Great Slave lake, southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba to North 

 Dakota and southern Minnesota; winters from Kansas to Texas, Florida 

 and the coast of South Carolina. It is purely an accidental visitant in 

 New York State, a single specimen having been taken at Ithaca, October 

 II, 1897, by Louis Agassiz Fuertes (Auk, 15:189). 



