ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
53T 
it is not uncommon in the reedy sloughs on the prairies. Such haunts are 
different from those usually attributed to it by other writers. 
It apijears to be a somewhat southern species. Mr. Nelson in referring to it 
says; “ One of our most abundant summer residents. Found everywhere in 
fields and on prairies, from the middle of May until the first of September.” Its 
habits and economic relations appear to bo very similar to those of the last 
species. 
Food: Grass seeds and the larvm of insects (Wilson). Insects and their larvae, 
seeds of grasses and other plants (De Kay). Larvae, insects, seeds, grasses and 
small weeds (Brewer). 
92. Ammodramus caudacutus Nelsoni (Allen). NELSON’S SHARP-TAILED 
FINCH. Group II. Class a. 
A single specimen of this recently discovered variety was obtained in the 
marsh on the border of Cold Spring Pond, September 7, 1877, and identified 
by Mr. Ridgway, through the kindness of Prof. Baird. Mr. E. W. Nelson 
thinks that it breeds in Northeastern Illinois, but that many pass to the north 
for the same purpose. Its usual haunts appear to be low, wet, reedy marshes. 
93. Melospiza Lincolni (Aud.), Bd. LINCOLN’S FINCH. Group I. 
Class a. 
This si)ecies is properly regarded as a migrant in Wisconsin, although a few 
are known to breed in the state. I have found it an uncommon bird, but Mr. 
Nelson speaks of it as common in Northeastern 'Illinois during the migrations. 
Two specimens were taken, September 26th, in company with fasciata, darting 
in and out of a hedge of rank weeds that grew along a corn-field. 
Food: Seeds. One had eaten five case-bearing caterpillars fColeoplioraJ; one 
had eaten three other insects. Insects and berries (Audubon). Seeds (Mr. 
Dressei*). 
94. Melospiza palustris (Bartr.), Bd. SWAMP SPARROAV. Group I. 
Class b. 
This Sparrow is a summer resident and very abundant in its favorite resorts, 
which are the sedgy and reedy swales bordering sti-eams, ponds and lakes. 
From these places it rambles off into the damp meadows to feed, but never far 
until it leaves for the south. A few frequent the open glades of tamarack 
swamps. It is insectivorous throughout the season, aud but little more than one- 
half of its food consists of seeds. The bird is especially to be encouraged be¬ 
cause it frequents, in part, those haunts where the troublesome arni 3 ^-worni 
breeds; and the three broods which it sometimes rears in a season necessarily 
make its destruction of insects very great. Audubon states that it forms the 
principal food of the Sparrow and Pigeon Hawks and of the Marsh Harrier, in 
certain localities, during some portions of the j^ear. 
Food: Of twenty Swamp Sparrows examined, two had eaten two parasitic 
hymenoptei'a — one a small ichneumon-fiy and the other a chalcidiau?; one, one 
juoih; six, thirteen beetles; two, two hemiptera, one of them of the cicadelliua, 
the other a plant-louse; two, two grasshoppers; and one, six snails. Five of the 
caterpillars eaten by two of the birds were case-bearers (ColeophoraJ, and one 
of them a hairy arctian. Thirteen of twenty-five had eaten small seeds of 
grasses, sedges and other plants. 
