98 LARK SPARROW. 



and December, the paler form outnumbering the typical species by far. They were 

 mostly found in company with Yellow-winged, Savanna, Henslow's, and Leconte's 

 Sparrows. They usually arrived early in November, when the first cold "norther" swept 

 over the State. As in their summer home they never visit thickets a,nd bushes, the dense 

 grasses and weeds of the open fields affording them food and shelter. They i-arely alight 

 on bushes, although they frequently mount posts, telegraph wires, fences, and some- 

 times the lower naked limbs of large trees. They do not remain in Texas during the 

 whole winter, the majority moving farther to the south, probably into Mexico, from 

 whence they arrived again in Lee Co., Texas, about March 1, remaining about two 

 weeks. At Preistatt, Mo., the first appeared about March 15; all had left in the 

 course of about ten days. None remaining there to breed as far as I know. In fall 

 they usually returned in early November and tarried often until December, 



The food of this bird consists of insects and small seeds of grasses and weeds. It 

 is very fond of searching on freshly ploughed fields, keeping almost always on the 

 ground. Though an unsuspicious and fearless bird, it neither seeks nor avoids the 

 companionship of man. It is the most common bird in the country roads of the North, 

 where it searches for food and dusts itself. In the South I have rarely seen it on roads 

 or in the vicinity of houses. 



NAMES: Vesper Sparrow, Grass Finch, Grass Sparrow, Bay-winged Bunting. — Abendfink, Grasfink (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: FringWa, graminea Gmel. (1788). Emberiza graminea Wils. (1811). Zonotrichia 

 graminea Bonap. (1838). POOCMTBS GRAMINBUS Baird (1858). 



DESCRIPTION: Sexes alike. "Tail-feathers, rather acute. Above, light-yellowish-brown; the feathers every- 

 where streaked abruptly with dark brown, even on the sides of the neck, which ai'e paler. Beneath, 

 yellowish (sometimes reddish) -white; on the jugulura and sides of neck and body streaked with brown. 

 A faint light superciliary and maxillary stripe ; the latter margined above and below with dark brown : 

 the upper stripe continued around the ear-coverts, which are darker than the brown color elsewhere. 

 Wings with tlie shoulder light chestnut-brown, and with two dull whitish bands along the ends of the 

 coverts; the outer edge of the secondaries also is white. Exposed portion of outer tail-feather, and 

 edge and tip of the second, white. 



"I^ength, about 6.25 inches; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.50 inches." (B. B. & R. I. p. 545.) 



LARK SPARROW, 



Chondestes grammacus Bonaparte. 



Plate XXIV. Fig. 1. 



Beautiful is the land, -svitli its prairies and forests, and fruit trees: 

 Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of heavens 

 Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the forest. 



Longfellow. 



pp our opportunities to ramble around in the post-oak woods of Texas are confined to 

 IL the hot and dry summer time, when the ground is deeply cracked and the flowers 

 withered, we are unable to comprehend the nature and extent of the great beauty and 

 charm of these woodlands in spring, when the feathered minstrels sing their jubilee notes. 



