404 



SYSTEMA TIC S YXOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



Fig. 268. — Baird's Savanna Sparrow, reduced, 

 (Sheppard del. Nichols sc.) 



ocular stripe just over auriculars, a post-auricular spot, a streak starting from angle of mouth, 

 and another heavier one parallel with and helow this, running directly into the pectoral ones. 

 Quills without special markings, excepting elongated inner secondaries, which correspond with 



scapulars. Tail the same, slightly whitish-edged. 

 Upper mandible mostly dark, lower pale. Feet 

 liesh-colored. Length 5.10-5.85, averaging 5.67 ; 

 extent 8.60-9.85, average 9..50; wing 2.75-3.00; 

 tail 2.00-2.25; culmeu about 0.40; tai-sus about 

 0.75 ; middle toe and claw, and hind toe and claw, 

 each, rather less ; 9 averages rather smaller. Au- 

 tumnal plumage : Soft, with brighter, more suffused 

 colors, in bolder pattern. Whole top and sides of 

 head, as well as nape and part of neck, suffused 

 witli rich buff, in many instances as bright a golden - 

 brown as that on head of Siurus auricapillus. A 

 paler, rather ochraceous shade of the same also 

 suffusing the whole fore under-parts. Pectoral and 

 lateral dusky streaks, as well as two rows on each 

 side of throat, large, heavy, diffuse. Bay and whit- 

 ish edgings of secondaries broad and conspicuous, 

 contrasting with black central fields. Whitish 

 edgings of tail-feathers the same ; and, in general, the same character is stamped over all the 

 upper plumage. Neioly-fledged young have each feather of the dorsal plumage conspicuously 

 bordered with white, producing a set of semicircles, much as in Anthus spraguei. There is 

 the same general buffy suffusion of head and fore parts as in autumnal adults, but the tint is 

 dull and ochrey. The markings below have a short, broad, guttiform character. When just 

 from the nest, the edging of secondaries and tail-feathers is of a peculiar pinkish-rusty shade. 

 Central Plains ; N. to the Saskatchewan ; E. to Red River of the North ; S. to Nebraska ; S. 

 to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Chihuahua in migration ; W. to Rocky Mts., casually 

 beyond, in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. An interesting Sparrow, long almost unknown 

 till I found it breeding in profusion in Dakota, taking 75 specimens in the summer of 1873. Tn 

 general habits and appearance in life quite like the Savanna Sparrow ; mixing freely with these 

 and Otocorys, Anthus spraguei, and Calearius ornatus. Song peculiar, of two or three tinkling 

 syllables and a trill, like zip-zip-zip-zr-r-r-r. Nest on ground, very hard to find, a slight 

 structure of grasses and weed-stalks, about 4 inches across; eggs 5, 0.80 X 0.60, white, 

 irregularly speckled and blotched wdth pale and dark reddish-browns, laid in June and July. 



(Subgenus Passerculus.) 

 P. prin'ceps. (Lat. princeps, chief.) Ipswich Sparrow. Pallid Sparrow. Barren 

 Ground Sparrow. ^ : General appearance of a large Savanna Sparrow, but with a resem- 

 blance to a Bay-winged Bunting. Upper parts grayish-brown, with blackish rufous-edged 

 centres of the feathers; median crown-stripe not strong, and scarcely yellowish; a whitish su- 

 perciliary stripe, not yellow anteriorly; ear-coverts grayish, with rufous tinge. Scapulars, 

 coverts, and secondaries blackish-brown, broadly edged with rufous, brightest on secondaries; 

 scapulars also edged with white, and both median and greater coverts white-tipped. Tail 

 brownish, tipped and edged with whitish. Whole under parts white, breast and sides of thr-.at 

 and body streaked, the streaks dusky-centred, rufous-edged. Bill dark brown, base of under 

 mandible paler; eyes and feet brown. Length 6.30; extent 11.00; wing 3.25; tail 2.60; bill 

 0.45; tarsus 0.95 ; middle toe and claw 1.05 : hind toe and claw 0.72. (Foregoine condensed 

 from original description of the type, taken iu winter. Following as redescribed by Ridawav:) 



