FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 
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548. Passeriierbulus lecontei (Aud.). Leconte’s Sparrow. Ads.— 
No yellow before the eye or on the bend of the wing; a broad ochraceous-buff 
line over the eye, and a cream-buff line through the center of the blackish 
crown; nape rufous-brown, each feather with a small black central spot and 
an ashy border; back black, the feathers margined first by rufous, then cream- 
buff and whitish; tail grayish brown, with a slight rufous tinge, darker along 
the shaft; the feathers narrow and sharply pointed, the outer ones much the 
shortest; breast and sides tinged with buffy, and more or less streaked with 
black; belly white. L., 5*00; W., 2‘00; T., 2‘05; B., *35. 
Range. — Cen. N. Am. Breeds in Canadian and Transition zones from 
Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie, s. Sask., and Man., s. to N. D. and s. Minn.; 
winters from s. Kans., and s. Mo., to Tex., Fla., and the coast of S. C., and 
occasionally to N. C.; casual in Ont. and N. Y.; accidental in Idaho and 
Colo. 
Glen Ellyn, not common T. V., May 4-?; Sept. 8-Oct. 6. SE. Minn., 
uncommon S. R., May 1-Oct. 17. 
Nest , of fine grasses, on the ground. Eggs, 3-5, delicate pink, lightly 
spotted with brownish and black near the larger end, '75 x ‘50 (Seton). 
Date , Raeburn, Man., June 6. 
My experience on the coast of Texas with this elusive little Spar- 
row conforms with that of most observers, and the few specimens I 
found were in wet marshes. Mr. L. M. Loomis, however, tells us that 
at Chester, South Carolina, where Leconte’s Sparrow is a locally com- 
mon winter visitant, it shows a marked preference for dry ‘old fields 
of broom sedge (Auk, II, 1885, p. 190). 
Few birds are more difficult to flush. It exhibits a rail-like disin- 
clination to take wing, and flying low and feebly, makes for the nearest 
cover. Ernest Thompson Seton records it as an abundant summer resi- 
dent in the willow sloughs and grassy flats of Manitoba, and describes 
its call-notes as a thin, sharp, ventriloquial tweet , and a single, long- 
drawn bizz; while its song, which is delivered from some low perch a 
little above the grass, is a tiny, husky, double-noted reese, reese, “so 
thin a sound and so creaky, that I believe it is usually attributed to a 
grasshopper.” 
1901. Peabody, P. B., Auk, XVIII, 129-134 (nesting). 
549. Passerherbulus caudacutus (< Gmel .). Sharp-tailed Spar- 
row. Ads. — General color of the upperparts a brownish olive-green; crown 
olive-brown, with a blue-gray line through its center; gray ear-coverts, in- 
closed by ochraceous-buff lines, one of which passes over the eye and one 
down the side of the throat; feathers of the back margined with grayish and 
sometimes whitish; bend of the wing yellow; tail-feathers narrow and 
sharply pointed, the outer feathers much the shortest; breast and sides 
washed with buffy, paler in summer, and distinctly streaked with black: 
middle of the throat and belly white or whitish. “L., 5*85; W., 2*30; T., 1*90 ; 
B., *50” (Dwight). 
Remarks. — The chief points of difference between this and the two fol- 
lowing birds are found in the markings of the breast and sides. In the pres- 
ent species these parts are pale ochraceous-buff, distinctly streaked with 
blackish; in nelsoni they are deep ochraceous-buff, lightly if at all streaked; 
in subvirgatus they are cream-buff, indistinctly streaked with grayish. 
Range. — Salt marshes of Atlantic coast. Breeds in Alleghanian and 
Carolinian faunas from Mass, to Va. ; winters on salt marshes from N. J. 
(casually from Mass.) to Fla. 
Cambridge, formerly common S. R., but occurs no longer. 
