406 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



gi-ayer — less mfous and more gray iu edgings of feathers. Such are the peculiarities of a 

 specimen from the very spot whence Latham described his Sandwich Bunting iu 1783, basis of 

 Emberiza sandwichensis Gm. ]788, the same as the Aoonalashka Bunting of Pexnant, 1785, 

 and Emberiza arctica Lath. 1790. The differences are appreciable on laying the skin along- 

 side a large varying series of Eastern savanna; but it does not follow that all Alaskan and 

 Aleutian Savanna Sparrows are like this. Birds more or less exactly like this are now known 

 to range along the X. W. coast from Oregon to tlie Aleutian Islands. They are not specifically 

 distinct from the common Savanna Sparrow, but represent a fairly well marked form. It is 

 unfortunate that, as in the case of our Hermit Thrushes, we have to go to this extreme for our 

 name of the stock species, and treat the common Savanna Sparrow as nominally a subspecies 

 of sandwichensis; but our rules of nomenclature leave us no alternative. I first reduced the 

 several subspecies to their proper status iu the original edition of the Key, 1872, and first 

 adopted the present nomenclature in the second edition, 1884. This is the same course now 

 taken by the A. 0. U., excepting that, Passerculus being reduced to a subgenus oi Anwwd ra- 

 mus, the present species appears as Ammodramus sandwichensis in the Lists, 1886 and 1895, 

 No. 542. 



P. s. savan'na. (Spanish sabana or sarana, a meadow. Fig. 270.) Cojimon Savanna 

 Sparrow. Adult ^ 9 , in spring : Thickly streaked everywhere above, on sides, and across 



'breast ; a superciliary line, and edge of 

 wing, yellowish ; lesser wing-coverts not 

 chestnut ; legs tiesh-eolor ; bill rather 

 slender and acute ; tail nearly even, its 

 outer feathers not white ; longest secon- 

 dary nearly as long as primaries iu the 

 ch)sed wing. Above, brownish -gi-ay, 

 streaked with blackish, whitish-gray and 

 pale bay, the streaks largest on interscap- 

 ulars, smallest on cervix ; crown divided 

 by an obscure M'hitish line ; sometimes an 

 obscure yellowish suffusion about head 

 besides the streak over the eye. Below, 

 white, pure or with faint buffy shade, 

 thickly streaked, as just stated, with dusky 

 — the individual spots edged with brown, 

 (Siieppird mostly arrow-shaped, running in chains 

 along sides, and often aggregated in an 

 obscure blotch on breast. Wings dusky; coverts and inner secondaries black-edged and tipped 

 with bright bay ; tail-feathers rather narrow and pointed, dusky, not noticeably marked. Ex- 

 treme dimensions of both sexes: Length 5.20-6.00 ; extent 8.50-10.00! wing 2.40-3.00 ; tail 

 1.75-2.25; tarsus 0.75-0.88 ; but such figures are rare. Average of both sexes 5.25: extent 

 8.75; wing 2.60; tail 2.00; tarsus 0.84. ^ J usually 5.30-5.60; extent 9.00-9.50; wing 2.67- 

 2.75; 9 usually 5.00-5.30 ; extent 8.75-9.00; wing 2.50-2.67. Ordinarily, bill about 0.40; 

 tarsus, middle toe and claw together 1.50. Fall and winter specimens much more brightly 

 C(dored than spring and summer ones ; the young particularly having much ochrey or buffy 

 suffusion, instead of clean colors, more brown and bay, instead of dusky and gray. It is not 

 easy for an unpractised person to discriminate the small Sparrows, and so variable a one as tliis 

 offers special difficulty; attention to the points of form as well as of color is requisite. Nortli 

 America, eastern ; very abundant N. in its breeding range, in fields, on plains, by the way- 

 side, and along the seasliore ; a thoroughly terrestrial bird, migratory, and in fall somewliai 

 gregarious. Has au agreeable though weak song in spring. "Winters at least from Middle 



Fig 270. — Common Savanna Sparrow, reduced 

 del. Nichols sc.) 



