688 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 2 



breeding territory, his song, insectlike though it may be, is a vital part 

 of the nesting cycle. 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) sent the following analysis to Mr. Bent: 



"The Savannah sparrow is one of the 'buzzy-voiced' sparrows, but 

 its song is rather more pleasing and musical than the others of that 

 group. In form it suggests the song sparrow, as it begins with 

 several (usually three) short staccato notes. These are usually 

 followed by two buzzes on different pitches. The introductory notes 

 are commonly three, but vary from one to seven. There are usually 

 two trUls, but a few songs have only one and still fewer have three. 

 I have 46 records; 35 have two trills, 8 have one only, and 3 have 

 three. 



"Songs vary from 1.8 to 3.4 seconds in length, averaging about 2.3 

 seconds. The longest one begins with five introductory notes, the 

 first two with pauses between them. Except for this one, no song I 

 have is longer than 2.5 seconds. 



"The pitch of songs varies from D#' ' ' to G ' " '. The pitch 

 interval varies from 1 to 4 tones, averaging about 2)4 tones. The 

 three parts of the most typical songs, the introductory notes and the 

 two trills, are ordinarily each on a different pitch, one high, one 

 medimn, and one low. There are six possible arrangements of three 

 different pitches, and by using numbers, 1 for the highest note, 2 for 

 medium, and 3 for low, these six arrangements are 123, 132, 213, 231, 

 312, and 321. All of these arrangements occur in Savannah sparrow 

 songs, and I have from four to six records of each arrangement, show- 

 ing that they probably occur in nearly equal frequency. The ones 

 most numerous in my records are 132 and 123. 



''The first songs of this bird are generally to be heard in April, and 

 the song continues on the breeding grounds until late July, or occa- 

 sionally to early August." 



In his guide Saunders (1935) lists four phonetic renditions of the 

 Savannah sparrow's song: 



1. C ' ' ' tiptiptip seeeee saaaay 



2. C ' ' ' ' tiptiptip saaaaaay seeeeeee 



3. E ' ' ' ' taptaptap saaaaaaaah seeeeee 



4. E ' ' ' ' tap tap tuptuptup saaa weeeee 



He further states that "The call note, 'tthlip\ is short and rather 

 curious in its combination of explosive, fricative, and liquid sounds 

 at its beginning." 



Ralph Hoffmann (1904) states that the Savannah sparrow "rarely 

 sings on migration" and that on the breeding ground "the song con- 

 tinues through July. * * * It is uttered from a rock or a low post, 

 and consists of two or three preliminary chips, followed by two long, 

 insect-like trills, the second in a little lower key than the first, tsip, 



