LARK SPARROW. 317 



Hab. — Eastern United States and Southern Canada to the Plains, south 

 to Florida, Cuba, Porto Rico and coast of Central America. 

 Nest, a cup-shaped hole in the earth, lined with dry grass. 

 Eggs, four or five, crystal-white, speckled with reddish-brown. 



So far £18 at present known, the Grasshopper Sparrow is of very 

 rare occurrence in Ontario, the southern border seeming to be the 

 northern limit of its distribution. 



Many years ag& I killed a male, who was squeezing out hm 

 wheezy notes from the top of a mullein stalk. Mr. Saunders men- 

 tions having taken one near London, but these two cases complete 

 the record for Ontario. 



It is named among the birds found in the North- West by Prof. 

 Macoun, but is not found in Mr. Thompson's list of the " Birds of 

 Western Manitoba." It is much given to concealing itself among the 

 rank herbage, and may in some localities be a rare summer resident 

 in Southern Ontario, but I do not expect to see it here, except as 

 a casual visitor. 



Genus CHONDESTES Swainson. 

 CHONDESTES GRAMMACUS (Say.). 



227. Lark Sparrow. (552) 



Head, curiously variegated with chestnut, black and white ; crown, chestnut, 

 blackening on the forehead, divided by a median stripe and bounded by two 

 lateral stripes of white ; a black line through and another below the eye, 

 enclosing a white streak under the eye and the chestnut auriculars ; next, a 

 sharp black maxillary stripe, not quite reaching the bill, cutting off a white 

 stripe from the white chin and throat ; a black blotch on middle of breast ; 

 under parts, white, faintly shaded with grayish-brown ; xipper parts, grayish- 

 brown; the middle of the back with fine black streaks ; central tail feathers, 

 like the back, the rest jet black, broadly tipped with pure white in diminish- 

 ing amount from the lateral pair inward, and the outer web of outer pair 

 entirely white. Length, 6^-7 ; wing, 3J ; tail, 3. 



Hab. — Mississippi Valley region, from Ohio, Illinois and Michigan to 

 the Plains, south to Eastern Texas. Accidental near the Atlantic coast 

 (Massachusetts, Long Island, New Jersey and Washington, t>.C.). 



Nest, on the ground, composed of dry grass. 



Eggs, three to five, white, irregularly veined with dark. 



In May, 1862, a pair of these birds was observed near Hamilton, 

 and the male was obtained and shown to me shortly afterwards. 

 I did not hear of the species again till the publication of the 



