Melospiza lincolnii
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Other names: Lincoln’s Finch
Adult.— Upper parts brown, finely streaked with black and gray; under parts white, finely streaked with black, and washed across the breast with buff.
The Lincoln’s Sparrow, or Lincoln’s Finch, is a rare migrant through New York and New England in May, late September, and early October. It is probably less rare in western New England than along the eastern coast. In spring it frequents the bushes on the edges of swampy or wet places, especially in valleys which are good migration routes. In the fall it accompanies the migrant Song and Swamp Sparrows, and may be found near the grassy swamps and wet meadows where these species then congregate. It rarely sings on migration, and only occasionally utters its alarm-note, a slight tsup.
It requires a well-trained eye to distinguish it from the Song Sparrow. It is possible to find it by persistently gazing at every sparrow in a migrating company in turn, using the opera-glass, until one is at last discovered with a pale buff band across the narrow streaking of the breast. When one has become familiar with the species, other differences are apparent; the bird is smaller than the Song Sparrow, trimmer, more elegant. Its tail is shorter, and the color of its back and the side of its head is olive-gray rather than reddish-brown. It is more apt than the other sparrows to raise its crest-feathers slightly when alarmed. (See “Bird-Lore,” vol. ii. p. 109.)
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)