LAND BIRDS. 493 
Lower Peninsula, the northern limit being the Saginaw-Grand Valley. 
About Lansing it is by no means common, but it was observed between 
Lansing and Grand Ledge by L. J. Cole, in June 1898, and T. L. Hankinson 
found it not uncommon near the College, on May 30 of the same year. In 
the southern and southeastern part of the state it seems to be irregularly 
distributed, but not uncommon in some places. J. Claire Wood found a 
nest and four eggs in Wayne county, May 28, 1902. Mr. Purdy says it is 
increasingly abundant at Plymouth, Wayne county. Mr. Swales states 
that careful search has revealed it in a number of localities in Wayne, 
Oakland, Genesee, and St. Clair counties, but that it is extremely local in 
its distribution. Apparently it occurs in little communities, several pairs 
nesting within hearing of each other. At Petersburg, Monroe county, 
Mr. Trombley says it is tolerably common and breeds, and specimens have 
been taken rather frequently in Kalamazoo county in June and July. 
The bird gets its name of Grasshopper Sparrow from the shrill whirring 
song, which is an insect-like trill closely resembling that of some grass- 
hoppers, and not readily detected by every ear. Mr. Bicknell says: “It 
is most persistent in song in hot dry summers, when on the most fervid 
days its fine notes sound sibilant and insect-like about the parched fields” 
(Auk, I, 330). 
It nests on the ground, laying three to five eggs, which are nearly white, 
rather sparsely speckled with brown and black, and more nearly resembling 
the eggs of some warblers than those of a sparrow. They average .73 by 
.58 inches. 
This bird arrives from the south in April, early in the month in the 
southern part of the state, and from the middle to the end of the month 
in Ingham county. It seems to prefer somewhat bushy and decidedly 
barren grass lands more or less overgrown with weeds, briars, etc. Taverner 
states that he never found it at Port Huron, but that at Pearl Beach, St. 
Clair county, it is scarce and quite local. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Outer tail-feathers a little shorter than the middle ones. ; : 
Adult (sexes alike): Top of head with a distinct whitish or buffy median stripe between 
two blackish ones; rest of upper parts brownish-gray, streaked with black (and sometimes 
chestnut), most broadly and heavily on the scapulars and middle back, more narrowly 
and sparsely on the neck and rump; a yellowish spot or short streak above the eye, and a 
more or less distinct dark line behind the eye; cheeks, throat, sides of neck, chest, sides and 
under tail-coverts, buffy white to clear buff, unspotted except for a few small streaks occa- 
sionally on the sides of chest; wings and tail brownish gray, edged externally with whitish 
but without any spots; the wing sometimes with two rather mconspicuous whitish bars 
across tips of middle and greater coverts; bend of wing bright yellow ; bill brown above, 
yellowish below; iris brown. In worn midsummer plumage the reddish brown of the upper 
parts is mostly wanting and the buffy chest becomes soiled brownish. Young birds lack 
the red-brown back markings, the feathers being widely edged with buffy and whitish, 
the chest distinctly streaked with brownish or blackish, the yellow eye-spot indistinct or 
wanting. 
Length 4.85 to 5.20 inches; wing 2.35 to 2.60; tail 1.80 to 2; culmen .40 to .47. 
