S88 Field Museum of Natural History — Zoology, Vol. IX. 



Genus PASSERHERBULUS Maynard. 

 253. Passerherbulus caudacutus nelsoni (Allen). 

 Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow. 



Ammodramus caudacutus nelsoni Allen, A. O. U. Check List, 

 1895, p. 227. 



Distr. . Breeds from northern Illinois and northwestern Indiana 

 northward through the Dakotas and Manitoba to Athabaska; south 

 in winter to Texas. Occurs on Atlantic coast from New England to 

 South Carolina and northern Florida during migrations; frequents 

 fresh water marshes. 



Adult: Crown, dark olive brown, with a grayish streak through 

 the centre; an orange bufE streak over the eye ; a patch of gray on the 



ear coverts, and cheeks bor- 

 dered by orange buff below; 

 nape, tinged with grayish 

 olive; feathers of the back, 

 grayish olive, sometimes 

 brownish olive, margined with 

 gray or pale buff; throat, pale 

 buff or bufEy white; breast 

 and sides of body, ochraceous 

 buff, faintly streaked with 

 dusky; middle of belly, white 

 or whitish; bend of wing, 

 tinged with yellow; tail feathers, narrow and pointed, dull brown 

 in color; the shafts of tail feathers, dark brown, and usually (but 

 not always) with numerous indistinct narrow dusky bars, giving 

 them a "watered" appearance; primaries, brown; greater coverts 

 and inner secondaries, dark brown, broadly edged with rufous brown 

 and pale buff. 



Length, 5.40; wing, 2.20; tail, 2; bill, .45. 



Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, or Sharp-tailed Finch as it is often 

 called, is abundant at times in Illinois during the migrations, but ap- 

 parently much less common in spring than in the fall. A few remain 

 to breed in the state, although the majority go further north. 



Nelson states: "The 12th of June, 1875, I saw several of 

 these birds in the dense grass bordering Lake Calumet, where. they 

 were undoubtedly breeding." (Birds N. E. 111., 1876, p. 107.) Mr. 

 Frank M. Woodruff writes, " I have taken the nest and eggs of this 

 species from near Calumet Lake." (Birds of the Chicago Area, 1907, 

 p. 138.) Messrs. Kumlien and Hollister consider this species an 



Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow. 



