THE BIRDS OF WISCONSIN. 
97 
1900, and others noted. We are at a loss to account for its 
great numbers in 1895, when a series of sixty skins was 
secured in two days, and as many more could have been easily 
taken. It is also rather remarkable that the closest search has 
failed to produce a single specimen in spring, none having 
been noted before August. Precisely similar localities to those 
frequented at Lake Koshkonong have been carefully searched, 
with a good dog, but without success. One of the most diffi- 
cult birds imaginable to collect, as it is never seen until 
flushed, must be shot on the wing, and last, but not least, 
found, after it is killed. 
Ammodramtis nelsoni (Allen). NELSON'S SPARROW. 
For the past twelve years we have found this species 
exceedingly abundant about Lake Koshkonong, in September 
and early October. Here it is always found among the bull- 
rushes growing in the water. Several were noted near 
Delavan Lake, September 26, 1899, and one taken, by 
F. E. Burrows. King records one specimen from Cold Spring 
Pond, Jefferson County, September 7, 1877, and Dr. Hoy took 
at least one at Racine. Although so very common in fall about 
Lake Koshkonong we have been unable, as in the case of 
leconteii, to find a specimen in spring or summer. Curiously 
enough this bird was not detected by Thure Kumlien and 
others in Wisconsin in early days, and what strikes the writers as 
still more peculiar is that the same localities where it is now 
so abundant were carefully observed twenty to thirty years ago 
without finding a single individual of the species. It seems 
almost impossible that it could have been overlooked, if as 
abundant at that time as at the present day. 
Cliondestes grammacns (Say). LARK SPARROW. 
This superb songster is somewhat irregularly distributed in 
Wisconsin. In most of the less wooded sections of the central 
and southern part it is a fairly common summer resident, but 
seems to be entirely absent from some localities. Mr. Clark 
finds it a common nesting species in Dunn County. Dr. H. V. 
Ogden and Mr. H. Russel have found it in fair numbers near 
Milwaukee. Dr. Hoy called it common at Racine, fifty years 
ago. Formerly quite common about Lake Koshkonong, but 
of late years has greatly decreased in numbers. The lark 
sparrow loves the uncultivated sod. Wherever there is an 
unbroken prairie, if only of limited extent, it is sure to be found. 
