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River. It was reported as breeding at Newport, Ark., but its normal 
breeding range does not extend much south of southern Illinois. 
In the fall of 1884 the last Grass Finch left Des Moines, lowa, August 
12, and the first appeared at Gainesville, Tex., October 8. 
In the spring of 1885 a pronounced migration of this species took 
place about the Ist of April. It was first noticed at Saint Louis, Mo., 
March 30; at Hennepin, Ill, March 31; Delavan, Wis., April 1; and 
Manhattan, Kans., April 4. The Texas records were later. They are: 
Gainesville, April 6,and San Angelo, April 14. The advance near the 
Mississippi River was quite uniform. Newton, Iowa, was reached April 
9; Leeds Centre, Wis., April 10; Lanesboro, Minun., April 16; New 
‘Richmond, Wis., April 14; Minneapolis, Minn., April 22; and Shell 
River, Manitoba, April 29. In the fall of 1885 the last one was seen at 
Elk River, Minn., October 3; Lanesboro, Minn., October 29; Saint 
Louis, Mo., October 21; and at Mount Carmel, Mo., October 28. At 
Gainesville, Tex., they were abundant November 17. 
540 a. Poocetes gramineus confinis Baird. [197 a.] Western Vesper Sparrow. 
This pale form of the Vesper Sparrow occurs on the high dry plains 
along our western border, and thence westward. Its eastern limit in 
the south is in the neighborhood of Gainesville, Tex., where specimens 
both of this subspecies and of typical gramineus have been taken by 
Mr. Ragsdale. Most of the specimens from Gainesville are intermediate 
in character, but from the one hundredth meridian westward, in Texas, 
typical confinis is the prevailing form. It breeds in western Texas 
(Lloyd). It is an abundant summer resident at Devil’s Lake, Dak., and 
is the common form in central Dakota, as well as in the Traverse Lake 
region in western Minnesota, and throughout western Manitoba. 
541. Ammodramus princeps (Mayn.). [192.] Ipswich Sparrow. 
Breeds on Sable Island, off Nova Scotia, and occurs in winter along 
the Atlantic coast as far south as Virginia. A single straggler has 
been reported from Dallas, Tex., where, according to its label, it was 
killed December 10, 1884 (Sennett, The Auk, Vol. III, 1886, p. 135), but 
there is reason to suspect that the specimen really came. from the coast 
of New England, the error having arisen from a transposition of labels, 
542a. Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna (Wils.). [193¢.] Savanna Sparrow. 
This Sparrow breeds throughout the Mississippi Valley east of the 
Plains. It is said to winter from southern Illinois and southern Kan- 
sas southward, but none of the observers found it north of latitude 359, 
It was found most abundantly about Caddo, Ind. Ter., and Gainesville, 
Tex., at which places both the typical species and the paler form, A. 
alaudinus, occur (one form remains abundant all winter, the other comes 
early in the spring). February 14, these Sparrows were very common 
at Caddo, Ind. Ter., though not more than five were found in a place. 
The morning of March 22 they were truly in the “height of the season.” 
Jt had not been supposed that they ever appeared in such numbers, 
