FINCIIES, SPARROWS, E’I‘L 307 
     
    
   
   
    
     hear its sweet chant in half—conscious answer to the liooting of the 
     
     Owl or even the report of a gun. 
     
    

    
     It is never seen far from water. and when it, is alarmed it flies 
     
     downward or along—never upward—into some low thicket, pumping 
     
     its tail as it flies. 
     
    

    
     lts alarm note is a simple metallic chip. which is very distinctive 
     
     when once learned. But its merry chant—which has won for it the 
     
     name of "Song Sparrow”—is its best-known note. It. is a voluble 
     
     and uninterrupted but short refrain. and is perhaps the sweetest of 
     
     the familiar voices of the meadow lands. The song that it occasion- 
     
     ally utters while on the wing is of quite a dilfcrcnt character, being 
     
     more prolonged and varied. 
     
    

    
     Though so abundant, it can not be styled a sociable species. Even 
     
     during,r the migrations it is never seen in compact flocks like the Red- 
     
     poll or Snowflake; at most it will be found. forming a part of a long, 
     
     scattered migrating train that usually includes a number of different 
     
     but nearly related species. ERNEST E. Tuoursox. 
     
    
   
   
    
     583. Melospiza. lincolni (Am/.3. LixroLN‘s SPARROW. .rtrih. 
     
     Upper parts streaked with black, brownish gray, and grayish brown: tail— 
     
     t'catliers narrow and rather pointed, the outer ones shortest; under parts 
     
     white, rather finely streaked with black, (1 III-mu! (‘I’L‘IIIIlJ/Iljfbum] across the 
     
     bra/mt, a crcani»butl' stripe on either side of the throat; sides tinged with 
     
     cream—butt. L.. 5'75: \\‘.. 2‘50: T.. 2‘4“: 13., ‘41. 
     
    

    
     11’t’711(ll'l‘8.iTl)0 cream-butt band on the breast, is distinctive of this 
     
     species. 
     
    

    
     Kangavliastern North America: breeds from northern Illinois and north- 
     
     ern New York northward; winters from southern Illinois to Mexico; rare 
     
     cast of the Alleghanies. 
     
    

    
     Washington, rare T. V.. several records. May and Oct. Sing Sing, rare 
     
     T. V., Sept. 21‘! to Oct. 1:]. Cambridge, uncommon T. \'., May 15 to May 25; 
     
     Sept. 15 to Oct. 5. 
     
    

    
     Alert, generally similar to that of ill. fast-fate. on the, ground. “ Eggs, four 
     
     to five. pale green or liutlish, sometimes almost white, thickly spotted and 
     
     blotehed with reddish brown and lilac, '80 x 60” (Chamberlain). 
     
    

    
     The most striking characteristic about the Lincoln’s Sparrow is its 
     
     shyness, whether migrating in the lavish abundance of the west, stray- 
     
     ing casually through the States of the Atlantic seaboard, or settled 
     
     for the summer in a chosen spot of the northern evergreen woods. 
     
     Seampering,r like a mouse along some tumble-dmvn stone wall half 
     
     buried in poison ivy, snmach, and all the tangled growth that goes 
     
     to make up an old hedgerow, or peering out from a clump of low- 
     
     spreading bushes, this little bird may sometimes be detected; but as 
     
     he hurries northward late in the migration. when all the woods and 
     
     fields are ringing with bird music, our attention is seldom directed