Sparrows SONG-BIRDS. 



as far away from it as he is able, and, if it is late afternoon, 

 will beguile you with his simple song, from no more ambi- 

 tious perch than a fence rail. The migrant flocks come to 

 us before or during the spring moult, and are not then in 

 full song ; and when they leave, in October, they are quite 

 voiceless. 



Grasshopper Sparrow: Ammodramus savannarmn 

 passerinus. 



Yellow-ivmged Sjxirrow. 



Plate V. Fig. 8. 



Length : 4.80 inches. 



3Iale and Female : Line over the eye, centre of crovm, lesser wing 

 coverts, and shoulders yellow. Above red-brown with an ash- 

 gray wash ; upper breast brownish drab ; belly whitish ; bill 

 stout and short, dark above, pale below ; tail feathers edged 

 with white ; feet dark. 



Song: Note like a grasshopper's chirp; song somewhat resembling 

 the Chipping Sparrow's, but in a different key. 



Season : Common summer resident. 



Breeds : Throughout its United States range. 



Nest: Like the Vesper Sparrow's, on the ground. 



Eggs: Sparkling white, with spots and flecks of red and brown. 



Eange: Eastern United States and southern Canada to the Plains, 

 south to Florida, Cuba, Porto Rico, and coast of Central 

 America. 



If you search for a Sparrow with yellow wings, as one of 

 its names suggests, you will altogether miss this species. 

 But if you look for a plain bird, with yellowish stripes 

 on the crown and over the eyes, lesser wing coverts dull 

 yellow, and bend of the wing bright yellow, who runs elu- 

 sively through the grass, giving a shrill, grasshopper chirp, 

 you will easily locate the Grasshopper Sparrow. The Spar- 

 rows and the Warblers will be inevitable stumbling-blocks 

 to you ; and when you have positively named half a dozen 

 species, and guessed at as many more, you will feel that 

 you have conquered ornithology. This particular Sparrow 

 keeps so persistently to the ground and to low bushes, in 



148 



