191 



546 a. A mmcdramus savannarum perpallidus Ridgw. [198 a.] Western Grass- 

 hopper Sparrow. 



Kather common on the Great Plains from Dakota southward. Mr. 

 Lloyd states that it is a resident in western Texas, and is tolerably com- 

 mon in fall in Concho County. A single specimen was killed at Boerne, 

 Tex., by Mr. Brown. (Bull. ^s T utt. Ornith. Club, Vol. VII, 1882, p. 127.) 

 Mr. Bagsdale writes that those taken at Gainesville, Tex., are interme- 

 diate in character, but nearer this subspecies than the typical form. 



547. Ammodramus henslowii (And.). [199.] Henslow's Sparrow. 



This is one of the rarer Sparrows of the Mississippi Valley. Eidgway 

 says it is a common species on weedy prairies in Illinois, where it breeds, 

 and in the southern part of which State it sometimes winters. It has 

 been found in Kansas and Nebraska, and from thence southward. Mr. 

 Scott found it breeding in western Missouri. (Bull. Xutt. Ornith. Club, 

 Vol. IV, 1879, p. 143.) The only observer who has had the good for- 

 tune to meet it is Mr. Ragsdale, who recorded it as uncommon at 

 Gainesville, Tex., where it was seen February-27, 1876.* 



548. Ammodramus leconteii (And.). [200.] Le Conte's Sparrow. 



This species is common over the western prairies, but is seldom no- 

 ticed because of its habit of skulking in the grass, where it manages to 

 keep well out of sight. It breeds in the Assiniboine Valley and in Da- 

 kota and Minnesota, and possibly in Illinois. In winter it ranges south 

 through all the States w^est of the Mississippi to Texas, and has been 

 found in numbers in Illinois, South Carolina, Alabama, and even in 

 Florida. In the spring of 1881 Caddo, Ind. Ter., was the only station 

 at which it was seen. Here its passage, for it did not winter, was very 

 rapid. February 16 over a dozen were seen; two days afterwards the 

 pastures were alive with them. A 640 acre field was as full of them as 

 northern fence-rows ever are with Chipping Sparrows. Many left the 

 night of February 19, and by March 1 all had departed. The nest and 

 eggs of this species have been described by Ernest E. Thompson, from 

 Manitoba (The Auk, Vol. V, 1885, p. 24), and by Dr. Agersborg, from 

 Vermillion, Dak. (Ibid,, Vol. V, p. 280), but the two accounts are so en- 

 tirely at variance that the question must wait for future settlement. 



In the fall of 1884 the first Le Conte's Sparrow was seen at Gaines- 

 ville, Tex., October 27. 



In the spring of 1885 a Le Conte's Sparrow, which had been impaled 

 by a Shrike, was sent me for identification from Fayette ville, Ark., where 

 it was found February 28. At Saint Louis, Mo., one was shot April 1; 

 it had not previously been known from that place. At Xewton, Iowa, 

 one was taken April 2(i.f 



* Since the above was written, Mr. Lynds Jones has found Henslow's Sparrow to 

 he a tolerably common breeder at Grinnell, Iowa. — C. H. M. 



t At Storm Lake, Iowa, during the latter of September, 1887, Dr. A. K. Fisher 

 found Le Conte's Sparrow commoD, and secured specimens not yet wholly out of 

 " first plnuiage," showing that they had been hatched in the neighborhood.— C. H. M, 



