The Swamp Sparrow 
Arrives here, (Saratoga Springs), about 
April 1st and departs, if it does at all, 
about the first week of October. I have 
seen it here March 22d, 1879, and Feb. 
27th, 1880. It is a pleasing songster, but 
less voluble than its friend and ally, M. 
melodia. It is not at all shy, and when on 
the nest can be approached quite close, 
when it will fly up with a startling whirr 
and an angry chirp, and after flying a 
short distance, will alight and run like a 
Sandpiper among the bogs, and under the 
overhanging bog grass, until at a safe dis- 
tance, when, being joined by the mate, 
both commence an angry chirruping at the 
intruder, which is increased as they per- 
ceive him searching for their nest, which 
is usually finished and ready for eggs about 
the 5th of May, placed on a bog generally 
on one side of it. One nest taken May 
19th, 1877, was under a stump about ten 
feet from a brook. The nest has no spec- 
ial lining, except an occasional horse hair 
and a little fine wire grass. The outer ma- 
terials are wire grass, mixed with some 
coarser grasses. It is rather neater in finish 
than M. melodia s nest, which, however, it 
resembles more than any other species 
with which I am acquainted. Its meas- 
urements are usually about four inches 
outside, and two inside; diameter with a 
depth of about one and three-fourths 
inches. One nest found May 24th, 1878, 
was five and a half inches in depth. Sets 
are usually four or five, the latter being 
the largest number I ever found.* They 
vary in size and color to a great extent. 
May 21st, 1878, found a nest and set of 
four in a bog surrounded by water. The 
eggs were of a small ground green, dashed 
and spotted with light brown and lilac. 
May 24th, 1879, found a set of five, two of 
which had rings of lilac and brown spots 
around the smaller end. May 15th, 1880. 
found a set of five, all the eggs heavily 
marked with reddish brown. Nest as 
usual, in a bog, but June 15th, 1881, I 
found a nest in a bush three feet from the 
ground, the eggs with usual markings, but 
the queerest position of any nest I ever 
found. I could not be mistaken in identi- 
ty, having seen the bird several times at 
the nest. The earliest sets I have ever 
taken were two of five each, May 5tli, 
1877, and the latest, June 12th and 13th, 
1881. — W. P. Tarrant , Saratoga, JT. Y. 
‘We have a set of six taken by Delos 
Hatch, Oak Centre, Wis., May 27, 1881. — • 
Ed.] 
O.&Q, VT1. Jun. 1882. p. /S4-/34". 
Nesting of the Swamp Sparrow. 
BY ISAAC S. REIFF, PHILADELPHIA, PENN. 
The Swamp Sparrow ( Melospiza palustris ) is 
the most plentiful species of the family found 
in the eastern part of Philadelphia and Dela- 
ware Counties, if we exclude the least useful 
representative Passer domesticus. It arrives in 
this neighborhood about the last week in April, 
and is found in great numbers on the low 
meadow lands that border on the Delaware and 
Schuylkill River, where it makes its summer 
home. 
Nest building begins about the twentieth of 
May, and in some cases as early as the fifteenth 
of that month. The number of eggs found in a 
nest varies from four to five, and more often the 
former than the latter number is found. The 
collector who is not well acquainted with the 
habits of this species would be somewhat sur- 
prised, on entering a meadow during the breed- 
ing season, to see a number of these birds, and 
after tramping several hours through tall tan- 
gled grass, mud, water and bunches of tus- 
socks, upon counting up the result of his tire- 
some hunt to find that the nests discovered will 
not average more than one to every ten pairs of 
birds seen. 
Some years ago before the lower portion of 
Philadelphia was so thickly settled, and the 
relentless small boy became so numerous, the 
favored site for a nest was the centre of a large 
tussock of grass, but now the greater number 
of nests found are placed on the ground, or in a 
bunch of sedge grass. When it is placed in 
the latter, or in a tussock, it is composed en- 
tirely of fine yellow grass stems, and is neat 
and compactly built. When placed on the 
ground, however, the outside is composed of 
coarse plant stems, and the inside is thickly 
lined with tine yellow grass, and it is much 
larger than when in the former position. 
This is the jolliest little sparrow that I have 
ever met, and while the breeding season lasts it 
seems as if he could not express his joy forci- 
bly enough to his partner. 
While the female is performing her laborious 
duties, the male, (when not hunting for food) 
will take his position on a weed stalk, or small 
bush, and pour forth his song ; and in his ecstacy 
he will rise in the air to the height of fifteen or 
twenty feet, and then let himself slowly de- 
scend to the ground, all the while keeping up 
his song. I have counted as many as twelve 
birds singing in the air at one time within a 
radius of one hundred and fifty yards. 
Swamp Sparrow. — In the O. and O. foi 
June, 1882, W. P. Tarrant of Saratoga, N. 
Y., says that the latest he has ever taken 
the eggs of this bird was on June 15th. 
July 17, 1882, in the town of Livonia, N. 
Y., I took a set of four. There was also 
one egg of the Cow Bird in the nest. The 
eggs were badly incubated. One paient 
was taken, so the ifl en ^ < ^^? n ^iP^fecyf882.p. Pi! 
C. II. Wilder, Syracuse, jY. Y 
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