970 Eepoht of State Geologist. 



It also is found along bushy raviueSj in woods, among bushes and 

 about brush piles in swampy ground. One specimen was taken in a 

 cloverfield near Brookville by Mr. E. R. Quick. It is an inconspicuous 

 species and doubtless is generally overlooked. It is shy and retiring, 

 preferring at all times to move under cover and to fly when hidden 

 from view by an intervening object. The first specimens reported 

 from Franklin County were two taken near Brookville by Dr. F. W. 

 Langdon and Mr. J. W. Shorten, May 10, 1879. Dr. Langdon says of 

 them: "The birds were found in a damp, wooded ravine traversed 

 by a small stream, one of them hopping about on a mass of drift in 

 search of small aquatic insects and larvae, with which its stomach was 

 found to be filled" (Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., July,. 1880, p. 124). 

 Its food is insects, fruit and seeds. 



*227. (584). Melospiza geoi^iana (Lath.). 



Swamp Sparrow. 



Adult in Summer. — Breast, sides of head, nape and stripe over eye, 

 gray; sides, pale grayish-brown, indistinctly streaked; belly, white; 

 crown, light chestnut; forehead, black, ashy stripe dividing both in 

 the middle; black stripe behind the eye; back, brownish-gray; upper 

 parts, striped with black, and on the back also with brown, ashy and 

 whitish; wings and tail feathers, edged with rufous, the latter dark 

 along the shafts; tertials and laxger wing-coverts, black-tipped, more 

 or less edged with whitish. Aduli in Winter and Immature. — Crowm 

 and upper parts, more blackish; more or less streaked on breast. 



Length, 5.25-6.00; wing, 2.30-2.50; tail, 2.40-2.70. 



Eakge. — Eastern North America. Breeds from northern Indiana 

 north to Labrador and Manitoba. Winters from southern Illinois 

 south to Gulf of Mexico. 



Nest, in wet meadow or swampy thicket; on ground or in tussock 

 of grass; composed of plant stems, lined with fine grass. Eggs, 4 to 

 6; greenish- white to light green, clouded and spotted with various 

 shades of brown; .78 by .56. 



Regular migrant over most of the State; in the extreme northern 

 part it is, in some localities, an abundant summer resident, breeding 

 in great numbers, even outnumbering the Song Sparrows. In the 

 lower Wabash Valley some may remain through the winter. It is re- 

 ported as wintering in southern Illinois. There, Mr. Ridgway says, 

 it congregates in immense numbers — perhaps exceeding those of any 

 other species in the sheltered swamps of the bottom lands. By reason 



