222 THE BIRDS 
GENUS POCCETES. 
[540]. Powcetes gramineus gramineus (Gmelin). 
Vesper Sparrow. 
Ranex.—Eastern North America. Breeds in Lower 
Canadian, Transition, and Upper Austral zones from 
southwestern Keewatin, central Ontario, central Quebec, 
and Cape Breton Island south to eastern Nebraska, central 
Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina, west 
to western Minnesota; winters from southern part of 
its breeding range to the Gulf Coast, west to middle Texas, 
casual in Bermuda and Yucatan. 
This is a bird of our inland region, except in the early 
fall and spring, when many tarry with us for a few weeks. 
They are an abundant bird in the interior during the 
breeding season, my father finding them very common at 
Harrisonburg, Goshen, and Hot Springs, where young 
and eggs in all stages of incubation lead him to believe 
they raised not less than two broods, possibly three. The 
nest is made in a slight hollow in the ground, of dry 
grasses, and sometimes lined with hair. The eggs usually 
number four, a grayish-white, blotched, lined and specked 
with different shades of brown, and fainter markings of 
lilac. Size, .80x.60. Around Harrisonburg the birds 
built in the grain fields, which, when cut, destroyed many 
outright, the others being deserted for lack of shelter or 
protection. Fresh eggs May 10th to 20th (first sitting), 
July 2nd (second brood), August 5th (third sitting). 
Like all the sparrow family, they do a great amount of 
good by destroying many noxious weed seeds and insects, 
grasshoppers being a staple article. Professor Smyth 
reports them as arriving at Blacksburg April 17th, where 
