Tenet AL) Ue eeOrN ob. Geli TON 7 
ON THE LARK SPARROW IN ILLINOIS 
9) 
The Lark Sparrow, ‘“Chondestes grammaca grammaca,”’ has been re- 
ported in Illinois as far back as 1878, when Robert Ridgway observed them 
as common summer residents at Mount Carmel in southern Illinois. In 
1910, Howell reported the Lark Sparrow as being of very local distribution 
in southern Illinois. It was seen only between Cobden and Lick Creek. The 
status of the Lark Sparrow in southern Illinois is now uncertain. George 
(1968) indicates that the former common summer resident is now a rare 
spring migrant. 
The Lark Sparrow has been observed breeding as far north in Illinois 
as DuPage County (Eifrig, 1913). Here it is described as very rare. One 
adult individual was secured about Chicago at Beach, Illinois, in July, 1927 
(Brodkorb, 1930). Hess (1910) reported the first nesting of the Lark Sparrow 
in eastern Illinois (Champaign County) and defined the bird as a rare 
summer resident. Quindry (1929) also found Lark Sparrows in Champaign 
County but with no evidence of breeding. They have been reported as 
common summer residents in western Illinois in 1890 (Poling). 
In an associational study of Illinois sand prairie at Havana, Mason 
County, Vestal (1913) reported the Lark Sparrow as a dominant of bunch- 
grass, nesting on the ground, and frequently found in small flocks. Smith 
(1955) lists the Lark Sparrow as an uncommon and irregular migrant, un- 
common summer resident in central and northern Illinois, and a common 
and regular resident locally in Mason and Henderson Counties. 
In a bird census I conducted during the spring and summer at the 
Wilkerson Farm, property recently willed to the University of Illinois 
Foundation, 9 miles south of Havana, Mason County, I observed nesting 
Lark Sparrows and present the first quantitative data on the species in 
Iilinois. In a 50-acre plot of sand prairie, 12 breeding pairs were recorded 
giving 24 pairs per 100 acres, 40 hectares. Of all the nesting forest interior, 
forest-edge, and prairie species, the Lark Sparrow was second in abundance 
only to the Field Sparrow, “Spizella pusilla pusilla,” which numbered 
31 pairs per 100 acres. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Brodkorb, P. 1930. “Notes on some birds uncommon in northern Illinois.” Auk 47:578. 
Eifrig, G. 1913. ‘Notes on some of the rarer birds of the prairie part of the Chicago area.” 
Auk 30:240. 
George, W. G. 1968, “Check list of birds of southern Illinois.” Mimeographed booklet, 
Southern Illinois University. 27 p. 
Hess, |. E. 1910. “One hundred breeding birds of an Illinois ten-mile radius.’’ Auk. 27:27. 
Howell, A. H. 1910. ‘Breeding records from southern Illinois.” Auk 27:216. 
Poling, O. C. 1890. Notes on the Fringillidae of western Illinois.” Auk 3:241. 
Quindry, L. 1929. “Notes from Champaign County, Illinois.” Auk 46:556. 
Ridgway, R. 1878. ‘Notes on birds observed at Mt. Carmel, southern Illinois, in the spring 
of 1878.” Auk 1:164. 
Smith, H. R., P. W. Parmalee. 1955. “A distributional check list of the birds of Illinois.’ State 
of Illinois. 61 p. 
Vestal, A. G. 1913. “An associational study of Illinois sand prairie.’ Bulletin of the Illinois 
State Laboratory of Natural History. 10:1-95. 
WILLIAM W. JOHNSON, 8631 South 82nd Avenue, Hickory Hills, Ill. 60401 
