FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 391 
548. Passerherbulus lecontei (Aud.). Lecontr’s SpARRow. Ads.— 
No yellow before the eye or on the bend of the wing; a broad ochraceous-buff 
line over the eye, and a cream-buff line through the center of the blackish 
crown; nape rufous-brown, each feather with a small black central spot and 
an ashy border; back black, the feathers margined first by rufous, then cream- 
buff and whitish; tail grayish brown, with a slight rufous tinge, darker along 
the shaft; the feathers narrow and sharply pointed, the outer ones much the 
shortest; breast and sides tinged with buffy, and more or less streaked with 
black; belly white. L., 5°00; W., 2°00; T., 2°05; B., °35 
Range.—Cen. N. Am. Breeds in Canadian and Transition zones from 
Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie, s. Sask., and Man., s. to N. D. and s. Minn.; 
winters from s. Kans., and s. Mo., to Tex., Fla., and the coast of S. C., and 
occasionally to N. C.; casual in Ont. and N. Y.; accidental in Idaho and 
olo. 
Glen Ellyn, not common T. V., May 4-?; Sept. 8-Oct. 6. SE. Minn., 
uncommon 8. R., May 1—Oct. 17. 
Nest, of fine grasses, on the ground. Eggs, 3-5, delicate pink, lightly 
spotted with brownish and black near the larger end, °75 x *50 (Seton). 
Date, Raeburn, Man., June 6. 
My experience on the coast of Texas with this elusive little Spar- 
row conforms with that of most observers, and the few specimens I 
found were in wet marshes. Mr. L. M. Loomis, however, tells us that 
at Chester, South Carolina, where Leconte’s Sparrow is a locally com- 
mon winter visitant, it shows a marked preference for dry ‘old fields 
of broom sedge (Auk, II, 1885, p. 190). 
Few birds are more difficult to flush. It exhibits a rail-like disin- 
clination to take wing, and flying low and feebly, makes for the nearest 
cover. Ernest Thompson Seton records it as an abundant summer resi- 
dent in the willow sloughs and grassy flats of Manitoba, and describes 
its call-notes as a thin, sharp, ventriloquial tweet, and a single, long- 
drawn bizz; while its song, which is delivered from some low perch a 
little above the grass, is a tiny, husky, double-noted reese, reese, ‘so 
thin a sound and so creaky, that I believe it is usually attributed to a 
grasshopper.” : 
1901. Prasopy, P. B., Auk, XVIII, 129-134 (nesting). 
549. Passerherbulus caudacutus (Gmel.). SHARP-TAILED SpPaR- 
row. Ads.—General color of the upperparts a brownish olive-green; crown 
olive-brown, with a blue-gray line through its center; gray ear-coverts, in- 
closed by ochraceous-buff lines, one of which passes over the eye and one 
down the side of the throat; feathers of the back margined with grayish and 
sometimes whitish; bend of the wing yellow; tail-feathers narrow and 
sharply pointed, the outer feathers much the shortest; breast and sides 
washed with buffy, paler in summer, and distinctly streaked with black: 
middle of the throat and belly white or whitish. ‘‘L., 5°85; W., 2°30; T., 1°90; 
B., *50” (Dwight). i 
Remarks.—The chief points of difference between this and the two fol- 
lowing birds are found in the markings of the breast and sides. In the pres- 
ent species these parts are pale ochraceous-buff, distinctly streaked with 
blackish; in nelsoni they are deep ochraceous-buff, lightly if at all streaked; 
in subvirgatus they are cream-buff, indistinctly streaked with grayish. 
Range.—Salt marshes of Atlantic coast. Breeds in Alleghanian and 
Carolinian faunas from Mass. to Va.; winters on salt marshes from N. J. 
(casually from Mass.) to Fla. 
Cambridge, formerly common 8. R., but occurs no longer. 
