232 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



partial to wet situations, but is found to some extent in dry 

 fields of broom sedge. The bird is a ground dweller and 

 rarely aspires to a higher perch than a weed stalk or a small 

 bush. Its song is very weak and inconspicuous, consisting of 

 only two syllables, like tee-wick, which can be heard but a few 

 rods away. 



Food habits. — Little is known of the food habits of this 

 bird; 4 stomachs from Virginia examined by Judd contained 

 beetles, cut worms, grasshoppers, bugs, and blackberries.* 



LECONTE SPARROW: Passerherbvlus leconteii 

 (Audubon) . 



State records. — The LeConte sparrow is probably a rare and 

 local winter visitant; it hais been detected only once — ^by 

 Nathan Clifford Brown — ^who took 7 specimens at Coosada, 

 3 during the latter half of February, and 4 during the first 

 three weeks of March, 1878. 



General habits. — This a very shy and elusive bird, and most 

 difficult to flush from its retreats in thick grass. Loomis 

 found them in winter in South Carolina living in neglected 

 old fields, grown up to briers and broom sedge. He says: 

 "When not concealed, but in short grass, they are very tame, 

 allowing one to approach within a few feet, and then running 

 off a little way and stopping to look back."t 



In its summer home on the prairies of Dakota, Coues found 

 the birds "in the deep green sea of waving grass that rolled 

 over an extensive moist depression of the prairie."J 



Food habits. — ^Little is known of the food habits of this 

 species. Loomis examined a number of stomachs in South 

 Carolina and found in them several kinds of small seeds and 

 gravel. 



NELSON SPARROW : Ammospiza caudacuta nelsoni 



(Allen).** 



State records. — The Nelson sparrow, the interior form of 

 the sharp-tailed sparrow, is a moderately common winter visi- 



•Judd, S. D., Biol. Surr. Bull. 16, p. 63, 1901. 

 fLoomis, L. M., The Auk, vol. 2, p. 191, 1886. 

 ICouea, Elliott, Birds of the Northwest, p. 1S6, 1874. 



**PaBserherbula8 nelsoni nelmni of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see 

 The Auk, vol. 36, p. 210, 1918. 



