LINCOLN'S SPAh^ROW. 



Melospiza lincolni Baird. 



TS\ incoln's Sparrow, though in some localities very numerous, is one of the least 

 J!^ known of the whole group of Spizellinse or "Bunting Sparrows." Being plainly 

 colored and in appearance much like others of the group, it is easily overlooked, even 

 by the experienced field ornithologist. Its summer range extends from our northern 

 border northward, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In the West it is much more 

 common than in the East, but on the whole it is a bird which straggles in "such loose 

 and desultory fashion that it cannot be relied upon." ' Though having been found 

 breeding by Dr. Hoy near Racine, Wis., and in the high mountain ranges of the East 

 and West, it breeds mostly north of the United States, in Labrador, the region of the 

 Saskatchewan, the Mackenzie, and in Alaska. According to Mr. Trippe it breeds in the 

 Rocky Mountains of Colorado, from 9,500 or 10,000 feet up to timber line, and Dr. J. 

 A. Allen found it in the same State from 8,000 feet to above the limit of trees, occurring 

 chiefly in the vicinity of wooded streams and in moist or swampy thickets. 



The late Dr. Hoy, with whom I had frequently very pleasant discourses about his 

 ornithological discoveries in Racine County, Wis., told me that he had found the nest on 

 very moist ground, among grasses. It was built entirely of grasses lined with finer 

 grasses, much in the way as the ground nests of the Song Sparrow. The eggs, having 

 a greenish-white ground, were thickly marked w^ith dots and small blotches of reddish- 

 brown, often so numerous that they concealed the ground-color. 



Mr. Egbert Bagg, Jr., found two nests in Hamilton Co., N. Y. The first one was 

 discovered on the 13th of June, 1878, on a beautiful little pond. It was placed 

 on the ground, where it was almost spongy with water, within about two rods of the 

 pond, and about the same distance from the edge of the forest. It was not under the 

 protection of any bush or stone, but was quite well concealed in some tall grass of last 

 year's growth. It was composed entirely of dried grasses, the lining being neatly made 

 of the finer spears. The three eggs measured .74 by .56. The ground was a pale green, 

 covered with spots and blotches of different shades of reddish-brown. On one of them 

 the spots were so numerous as to become confluent with and almost concealing the 

 ground-color, while on another they were much smaller, so that the greenish-white of 

 the ground-color was the predominant tint, except at the large end, where the spots 

 became larger and more confluent, as indeed they did on all three. A second nest was 

 found in 1880 in an entirely similar location. 



Mr. Kennicott found nests at Fort Simpson and Fort Resolution, British 

 America. A nest discovered June 14 was on the ground, built in a bunch of grass in a 

 rather open dry place. It contained five eggs. The female permitted Mr. Kennicott to 

 approach very close to her. Another nest was built in a bunch of grass growing in the 

 water of a small pond. 



During the winter this Sparrow is found far to the south in southern Mexico and 

 even in Guatemala. In Texas I fovind it very numerous from the middle of November 



