170 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



post, and sometimes from the very ground. The song is so 

 shrill that it takes a sharp ear to catch it. It is almost ex- 

 actly like the stridulation of the green grasshopper, com- 

 mon in low grass-land (Orchelimum vulgare), tslcl-, tsick, 

 tsurrrrrrr. The call-note consists of two notes, tillic, almost 

 run together into one. The flight of the male from his sing- 

 ing perch is curiously feeble and fluttering. 



From other grass-loving sparrows, the buffy unstreaked 

 under parts should distinguish it. 



Savanna Sparrow ; Savannah Sparrow. Passerculus 



sandwichensis savanna 



5.68 



Ad. — Upper parts brown, streaked with blackish; a yellow line 

 over each eye, and a narrow white stripe through the centre of the 

 crown; breast and sides rather narrowly streaked; the spot in the 

 centre of the breast and on the sides of the throat not so prominent 

 as in the Song Sparrow; tail rather short ; legs and feet pale pink. 

 Im. — No yellow over eye. 



Nest, on the ground. Eggs, bluish-white, thickly marked with 

 reddish-brown. 



The Savannah Sparrow is a common summer resident of 

 the upland meadows of Berkshire County, Mass., and of 

 northern New England and New York. It also breeds com- 

 monly on the edges of extensive salt meadows along the 

 New England coast, north of Long Island Sound, and on 

 the wide alluvial meadows of certain rivers, such as the 

 Concord and the Connecticut. Through southern New Eng- 

 land and the lower Hudson Valley it occurs chiefly as a 

 migrant, common in April and early May, and again in 

 September and October. It should then be looked for in 

 grassy fields, particularly near the sea-shore, or along the 

 larger streams. 



The Savannah Sparrow, unlike most migrants, rarely 

 sings during migration. On its breeding-ground the song 



