EASTERN SAVANNAH SPARROW 689 



tsip, tsip, tseeeeeeeee tsee-ee-ee-ee. * * * When the birds have 

 young about * * * [they are] continually uttering a sharp tsup. 

 When two birds quarrel, they utter a harsh bsss." 



Jonathan D\vight, Jr. (in Chapman, 1898) has this to say: 



The song is insignificant — a weak, musical little trill following a grassliopperlike 

 introduction, and is of such small volume that it can be heard but a few rods. 

 It usually resembles tsip-tsip-tsip' se'-e-e-s'r-r-r. More singing is heard towards 

 sunset, when of a quiet evening the trills are audible at greater distances. Each 

 male seems to have a number of favorite perches, weeds or fence posts, which 

 are visited as inclination dictates, but he has too restless a disposition to remain 

 long on any of th(>m. The most familiar note is a sharjj tsi]^ of alarm or expostula- 

 tion heard during migration, but so constantly employed by both sexes in the 

 breeding season, even on slight provocation, that one gets to think of them as 

 veritable scolds. 



Norris (1960) in describing hostile intraspecific displays says that 

 "the sparrows occasiona,lIy had short-lived fights, usually accompanied 

 with rather buzzy or harsh call notes (schwurt-t) * * *." 



Quay (1957) has this to say about the call note and its relation to 

 social behavior: 



There was one definite aggregating mechanism which served, though at times 

 rather ineffectively, to maintain the weak type of flocking — the call note. The 

 single call note was a faint and sibilant "tseep" (variations: tseeep, tseeh, tseeeh, 

 tseh, tsip). The note was not given while the bird was on the ground and un- 

 disturbed. Typically, the first note was given just before or as the bird took 

 flight and then an additional one each two or three seconds while in flight. This 

 note had a disturbing or alerting influence on other Savannah sparrows nearby. 

 The note was usually effective as a signal to the others to follow the caller, not 

 quickly and all at once but slowly and as singles and groups of two and three, 

 which birds themselves also "tseeped" as they flew. 



Field marks. — The Savannah sparrow is a medium-sized open- 

 country sparrow. Streaked above and below, it is whiter below than 

 most other sparrows, with the crisp, black or brown streaks sometimes 

 clustering into a breast spot as in the song sparrow. It has a light 

 stripe through the crown and another over the eye, the forepart of 

 which becomes yellow in the breeding season. The tail is relatively 

 short and forked (an important field character, smce the other sparrows 

 which resemble the Savannah have rounded tails). The legs are 

 pinkish or flesh-colored. 



Enemies. — The enemies of the Savannah sparrow are many. 

 Depending upon how broad a definition one applies to the word 

 "enemy," they could include the nest-robbing crow, the hazards of 

 migration, the nest-usurping cowbird, and the competing song sparrow, 

 as well as, in the more classical sense, the hungry predator, whether 

 it be hawk, fox, cat, or owl. Basically of course, the main enemy is 

 the predator. And since the Savannah is widespread, plentiful, 

 small, and a ground nester, it is a perfect prey species. Data on 



