172 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



it by walking through the beach-grass ; after a hurried 

 flight it dives down again into the grass, and either crouches 

 under a tuft of grass, or runs low from one bit of cover to 

 the next. Its note is a faint tsip. 



Its general aspect is that of a large, pale Savannah Spar- 

 row, and care must be taken to distinguish it from this 

 species, which is often abundant in the beach-grass. 



Vesper Sparrow; Bay-winged Bunting. Pocecetes 

 gramineus 

 6.12 

 Ad. — Upper parts grayish brown, streaked with dark brown ; 

 breast and sides rather narrowly streaked, the streaks often form- 

 ing a spot in the centre ; sides of the throat narrowly streaked : 

 cheek washed with buff ; bend of wing bay ; outer pair of tail- 

 feathers mostly white, the next partly white. 



Nest, in a depression in grass or under a clump of plants. 

 Eggs, dull white, buffy, or pinkish buffy, stained and speckled 

 with reddish-brown. 



The Vesper Sparrow is a common summer resident of 

 New York and New England, though absent, of course, in 



the heavily forested re- 

 gions of northern New 

 England. Even here it 

 appears in the upper val- 

 leys as soon as clearings 

 are made and grass-land 

 becomes extensive. The 

 Vesper Sparrow arrives 

 in early April, and stays 

 till the middle or end 

 of October. It frequents 

 short-cropped pasture land, and the edges of cultivated 

 fields. Here from a rock, a fence, or the limb of a tree, 

 it sings its song, so often repeated toward evening that it 

 has won for the bird its name. 



Fig. 51. Vesper Sparrow 



