SAVANNA SPARKOW. 315 



numerous on tlie tore part anil .sides ; wing coveits and inner (juills iniu-li 

 edged and tipped with bay ; crown, like back, without median stripe ; line over 

 cUid ring roimd eye, whitish ; feet, pale. ' Length, -"ij-fii ; wing, 2J-.3;} ; tail, 

 2i-2S. 



Hab. — Eastern North America to the Plains, from Nova Scotia and Ontaiio 

 southward, breeds from Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri northward. 



Nest, a <leep cup-shaped hollow in the ground, lined with grass and liair. 



Eggs, four, grayish-white, heavily clouded with chocolate-bi-own. 



This is one of tlie "Gray Birds," and the most abundant in 

 Ontario of the several sjjecies to which this name is applied. 



Its song is very sweet and plaintive, and being most frequently 

 uttered in the evening about sundown, it has gained for the bird tlu' 

 appropriate name of Vesper Sparrow. 



It is a summer resident, arriving in Southern Ontario toward the 

 end of April, and soon becoming common all over the country. It 

 does not penetrate far north in the Province, and in Manitoba it is^ 

 replaced by the Western Vesper Sparrow, a pale gray form peculiar 

 to the prairies. 



The favorite perch of the male is the top of a fence post, and his 

 nesting place among the grass close by. In the fall the birds get to 

 be abundant before leaving, but from their habit of skulking among 

 the rank weeds, they are not so conspicuous as the blackbirds and 

 other species which keep in flocks on the wing. They move to the 

 south in October, none having been observed during the winter. 



Genus AMMODRAMUS Swainson. 



Subgenus PASSERCULUS Bonaparte. 



AMMODRAMUS SANDWICHENSIS SAVANNA (Wils.). 



225. Savanna Sparrow. (r)4L'rf) 



Above, brownish-gray, streaked witii blackish, whitish-gray and pale 

 bay, the streaks largest on the inner scapulars, smallest (m the cervix, the 

 crown divided by an obscure whitish line ; superciliary line and edge of wing, 

 yellowish ; sometimes an obscure yellowish suii'usion about the head ; below, 

 white, pure or with faint bufify shade, thickly streaked with dusky, the 

 individual spots edged with brown, mostly arrow-shaped, running in chains 

 along the sides, and often aggregated in an obscure blotch on the breast : 

 wings and tail, dusky, the wing coverts and inner secondaries black edged and 

 tipped with bay. Length, OrJ^-oJ , wing, 2^-2f ; tail, 2-2:^. 



