82 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



season, as many birds have a very characteristic flight 

 at that time. My sparrow flies as a partridge by con- 

 stant vertical elevation and depression of the wings. 

 This movement, though is slow and peculiar and may 

 be assumed as that of the turtle-dove or that of Icteria 

 virens (yellow-breasted chat) at the period when they 

 are making love. The chat is not only 'chatty' at the 

 season of nesting, but his flight is most amusing. It 

 would make many persons laugh to see him perform his 

 aerial evolutions." 



There is a marginal note, written a little later, giving 

 the correct identification of the above specimen. The 

 very next entry is another grasshopper sparrow, taken 

 the same day, indicating that the Doctor was at this time 

 a better collector than an ornithologist. He states that 

 "This as well as that above had debris of insects in 

 stomach." 



In August, 1889, Dr. Avery published the following 

 "Observations on the Grasshopper Sparrow in Hale 

 County, Alabama": 



"Hale County lies between Tuscaloosa County on the 

 north and Marengo County on the south; its western 

 boundary is the Warrior River, its eastern. Perry County. 

 The grasshopper sparrow, Ammodromas savannarum 

 passerinns, is found only in the Canebrake or Black Belt 

 of Hale County. On its northern migratory path it prob- 

 ably finds there suitable breeding grounds; and that 

 may account for its presence in summer in that part of 

 the county, while it is never seen at all, to my knowledge, 

 in the less fertile, piney and sandy portion of the north 

 of the county. 



"It winters farther south, and makes its appearance 

 in this locality about the first of May, when it begins to 

 breed. A nest of this species found by me on the 11th of 

 this month (May) contained five eggs slightly incubated; 

 it was in a depression in the ground, lined with grass, 

 and was arched or domed on the top. The eggs were 

 white and spotted with reddish-brown, mostly on the 

 larger end, and not differing from the description given 

 of the eggs of the grasshopper sparrow breeding farther 

 north. 



