272 BULLETIN OF THE 



40.t PasserculllS savanna Bonaparte. Savanna Sparrow. 



Emheriza sandwichensis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 875, 1788. 



Emberiza arctica Latham, Ind. Orn., I, 414, 1790. 



Emheriza chrysops Pallas, Zool. Rosso-Asiat., II, 45, pi. xlviii, fig. 2, 1811. 



Fringilla savanna Wilson, Am. Urn., Ill, 55, pi. xxii, fig. 2, 1811. 



Passerculus savanna Bonaparte, Geog. ami Comp. List., 3.3, 1838. — Baird, 



Birds N. Am., 442, 1858. — Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 112, 1862. 

 Passerculus alaudinus Bonaparte, Compte Rendu, XXXVII, 918, 1853. — 



Baird, Birds X Am., 446, 1858. — Sclatek, Cat. Am. Birds, 112, 1862. — 



Coues, Proc Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., XVIII, 84, 1866. — CouES,Proc. Essex 



Inst., V, 281, 1868.— Cooper & Baird, Orn. Cal., I, 181, 1870. 

 Passerculus ant/unus Bonaparte, Compte Rendu, XXXVII, 919, 1853. — 



Baird, Birds N. Am., 445, 1858. — Sclater, Cat. Am. Birds, 112, 1862. — 



Cooper & Baird, I, 18.3. 

 Passerculus sandwichensis Baird, Birds N. Am., 444, 1858. — Sclater, Cat. 



Am. Birds, 112, 1862. — Cooper & Baird, Orn. Cal., I, 180. 



Abundant, especially on the savannas, where it was the principal 

 sparrow seen. 



This species, like all the sparrows, varies considerably in color with the 

 season of the year. Fall specimens, and especially the young of the year, 

 have the yellow superciliary stripe very indistinctly defined, it being in 

 numerous cases entirely obsolete. The general plumage is also much 

 browner, with the streaks on the dorsal surface suffused and obscured with 

 ferruginous, and those below, as in fall specimens of Melospiza melodia, 

 bordered with the same tint. Different individuals also vary considerably 

 in the breeding season, some being much grayer above than others ; the 

 superciliary line varies from bright yellow to grayish white, with the yellow 

 either entirely wanting or limited to a slight wash on the part anterior to 

 the eve. This graver plumage and faded condition of the superciliary 

 stripe is more especially seen towards the end of the breeding season. 

 The spots below also vary so much in size as to give very different aspects 

 to the plumage of the lower surface of the body in different specimens. In 

 some they form little more than a narrow line along the middle of the 

 feathers of the breast and sides of the body ; ill others they are quite 

 broad, occupying relatively a much larger surface ; occasionally, also, they 

 are aggregated on the lower part of the breast, forming a large conspicuous 

 patch, as distinct as is ever seen in Melospiza melodia. The general size. 

 of the bird also varies considerably, as is indicated in the accompanying 

 table of measurements, and the bill i- subjeel to very marked variations in 

 respect to length, size, thickness, and slenderness, as substantiated by a 

 series of nearly one hundred specimens now before me, including some 

 thirty specimens taken at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in the breeding season. 



