NEVADA SAVANNAH SPARROW 709 



furrow in a large, shallow, dry slough in rolling prairie country. It 

 was flush with the ground and extremely well hidden in a tuft of dead 

 grass. Compactly constructed of dried grass and fine weed stems, it 

 was lined with finer grasses and a few strands of black horsehair. 



J. F. Ferry (1910) found the Savannah sparrow abundant in south- 

 eastern Saskatchewan. Nests were usually sunk deep in the ground 

 at the base of a bunch of grass on the prairie. The eggs were usually 

 four, occasionally^ five, and were fresh from June 10 to 20. A number 

 of fledglings just able to fly were seen on July 3. 



W. W. Cooke (1897) considers the Savannah sparrow a not un- 

 common breeding species in Colorado from the base of the foothills 

 through the mountains up to nearly 12,000 feet, arriving early in 

 April and remaining until mid-October. In the Mesa County 

 region of Colorado, R. B. Rockwell (1908) states the Savannah 

 sparrow arrives in mid-April and breeds during May, June, and July, 

 ranging up to at least 8,000 feet and raising two broods. Favorite 

 nesting sites are the alfalfa fields, with the nests concealed in the dense 

 alfalfa plants close to or upon the ground. In late summer he found 

 the species abundant in hay fields where it associated with vesper 

 sparrows, lark sparrows, and chipping sparrows. 



W. P. Taylor (1912) found a nest of nevadensis in northern Nevada 

 in a slight depression on a low hummock covered with sparse grass 

 and completely surrounded by mud and water in a marsh. The 

 nest was built between a large clod of earth and a piece of cow 

 dung, and was composed of coarse pieces of wild hay and marsh 

 grass and lined with fine grasses and threads of horsehair. Dimen- 

 sions of the cavity were: diameter 2}^ inches, depth 1% inches. 

 Incubation had just commenced on the five eggs. 



Eggs. — The measurements of 40 eggs average 19.1 by 14.0 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 20.5 by 15.2, 

 19.8 by 15.2, 16.3 by 13.2, and 18.8 by 12.7 millimeters. 



Plumage. — Joseph Grinnell (1910) describes P. s. nevadensis as resem- 

 bling anthwus (then alaudinus) but much paler throughout in all plum- 

 ages: white replacing buff, black streaks thus more conspicuously 

 contrasted, there being a minimum amount of hazel marginings; 

 size slightly less. From P. s. savanna, nevadensis differs in coloration 

 in the same ways as above but in greater degree; the bill is propor- 

 tionally much smaller, though the wing length is nearly the same. 



In the Juvenal plumage the throat, postpectoral region, and cris- 

 sum are pure white; the flanks narrowly black-streaked on a white 

 ground; pectoral region sharply black-streaked on a very pale cream- 

 buff ground; sides of head and neck flecked with black on a pale 

 cream-buff ground; superciliary and median crown stripes whitish, 

 the former minutely flecked with blackish; lateral crown stripes to 



