The nest is built in the ground, in a depression, or apparently an excavation scratched out by the bird itself, and is a well-made structure of coarse, dry, and soft reeds and grasses, well lined with finer materials of the same description. The eggs, five or six in number, somewhat resemble those of
the C. passerinus. Their ground-color is a clear bright white, and they are spotted with well-defined reddish-brown markings, and more subdued tints of purple. The markings, so far as I have seen their eggs, are finer and fewer than those of C. passerinus, and are distributed more exclusively around the larger end. The eggs measure .78 by .60 of an inch, and are of a more oblong-oval than those of the common Yellow-Wing.
Coturniculus lecontei, Bonap.
LECONTE’S BUNTING.
Emberiza lecontei, Aud. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 338, pl. cccclxxxviii.—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 340. Coturniculus lecontei, Bon. Conspectus, 1850, 481.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 452.
Sp. Char. Bill much more slender than in C. henslowi. First quill the longest, the rest diminishing rapidly. Tail emarginate and rounded, with the feathers acute. Upper parts light yellowish-red, streaked with brownish-black; the margins of the feathers and scapulars pale yellowish-white. Tail-feathers dusky, margined with light-yellowish. Lower parts, with the cheeks and a broad band over the eyes, fine buff. Medial line yellowish anteriorly, nearly white behind. The buff extending to the femorals and along the sides, streaked with brownish-black. Throat, neck, and upper parts of the breast, without any streaks, and plain buff. Length, 4.40; wing, 2.13; bill along ridge, .37; edge, .50. Legs flesh-color; bill dark blue.
Hab. Mouth of Yellowstone, to Texas.
Since the regret expressed in the Birds of North America (1858) at the loss of the single specimen known of this species, another has been received by the Smithsonian Institution from Washington Co., Texas, collected by Dr. Lincecum. It is in very poor condition, having been skinned for an alcoholic preparation, and does not admit of a satisfactory description of the colors. In its unspotted breast, the rufous feathers of the hind neck, the absence of maxillary stripes, and apparently in the markings of the wings, it is most like C. passerinus. Although the inner tail-feathers have the narrow stripe of henslowi, the bill is much smaller, as stated by Audubon, than in the others, and is apparently bluish, not yellow. The vertical stripe is deep buff anteriorly, and pale ashy posteriorly, instead of buff throughout, and the superciliary stripe is continuously buff, instead of yellow anterior to, and ashy behind, the eye. In the comparative length of wing and tail, it is most nearly related to henslowi, but the bill is very much narrower than in either. Upon the whole, there can be no doubt of its actual specific distinctness from both its allies.
Habits. Leconte’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow was procured by Audubon in his expedition to the Yellowstone. He speaks of its having very curious notes, which he describes as of a sharp, querulous nature, and a general habit of keeping only among the long, slender green grasses that here and there grew up in patches along the margins of the creeks. So closely did it keep
in the coverts to which it resorted, that it was very difficult to force it to rise on the wing, when only it could be procured. Mr. Audubon did not meet with its nest or young, and they remain unknown.