"The Clay-colored Sparrows nest abundantly in Dakota, and especially along the 

 Red River, in the open, low underbrush by the river-side, and among the innumerable 

 scrub-willow copses of the valley. They pair here at the latter part of May, when the 

 males come into full song ; the nests are built and the complement of eggs laid, usually by 

 the middle of June. During this month, while the females are incubating, the males mount 

 the tops of the bushes and sing continually— indeed I know of no more assiduous and 

 persistent songster than this little bird is, although his vocal efforts are of an humble 

 sort. His ditty is a simple stave of three notes and a slight trill— nothing like the 

 continuous song of the Chip-bird. In places where the birds are plentiful, several males 

 may be in sight at once, each on his own bush clump, while his mate is nesting below. 

 As soon as incubation is over, the habit is entirely changed, and the males become as 

 inconspicuous as their consorts. The pairing season, during which the males may be 

 seen continually chasing the females about the bushes, is of short duration; and, 

 preliminaries adjusted, both birds set to work in earnest at their nest, with such success 

 that it is completed and the eggs laid in a week or two. Most of my nests were found 

 during the first two weeks in June. In one case, in which I visited a nest daily, I found 

 that an egg was laid each day, till the complement of four was filled. I have not found 

 more than four eggs in a nest, and sometimes only three. They are of a light green 

 color, rather scantly and sharply speckled with sienna and other rich shades of brown 

 — sometimes very dark brown. Generally the dotting is chiefly confined to the larger 

 end, with only a speck here and there over the general surface; the dots are sometimes 

 in an area at the butt, sometimes partially confluent and wreathed around it. The eggs 

 measure about 0.62 by 0.50. The nest is always placed low; I never found one so high 

 as a yard from the ground, and generally took nests within a few inches, in the crotch 

 of a willow or other shrub, or in a tuft of weeds. The nest is inartistically built of fine 

 dried grass-stems and the slenderer weed-stalks, with perhaps a few rootlets ; it is some- 

 times lined quite thickly w^ith horse hair, sometimes not, then having instead some very 

 fine grass-tops. It varies a good deal in size and shape, according to its situation, but 

 may average about three inches across by two deep, with a cavity two inches wide by 

 one and a half deep. In those cases where I approached the sitting bird, she left the 

 nest when I was a few steps away, and fluttered directly into concealment, without 

 attempting any artifice or venturing to protest against the spoliation of her home. 

 "It is most probable that two broods may be reared, even in this high latitude, 

 but I cannot so assert, as I found no nests nor heard the nuptial songs after June. In 

 July the birds appear in greater numbers than ever, from the accession of the year's 

 broods, and now go in little troops in the shrubbery along with several other kinds of 

 Sparrows. I found them in all w^ooded and shrubby situations in Dakota, but never 

 out on the high prairie. Early in the fall, in Dakota, they are joined by numbers of 

 Lincoln's, Gambel's, and Harris' Finches, all of which flutter through the shrubbery 

 together. They depart for the South early in October, according to my observations, 

 though some may linger later. In spring their return may be noted on the Missouri 

 River, in the region about Fort Randall for instance, tow^ard the end of April, at the 

 same time that the Bay-winged Buntings and Lark Finches arrive." (Coues.) 



In his work, "The Ornithology of Illinois," Prof, Robert Ridgway writes as fol- 



