SPRING AERIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 31 



yon may not find one, while otlier neighborhoods 

 abound with them. They seem to prefer stretches of 

 level country, especially newly seeded meadows. They 

 are plentif id on Buffalo Plains and at the Driving Park, 

 and one frequently hears them along Chapin and Bid- 

 well Parkways. The song is something like that of 

 the song sparrow, and may easily be mistaken for a 

 poor effort of this species. The time and divisions of 

 the strains are similar, but the quality of the tone is 

 entirely different, the notes of the one being clear and 

 liquid, Avhile those of the other are thin, stridulous and 

 insect like. If you mistake it for that of the song 

 sparrow it will prove disappointing, and you will think 

 it a young bird, or one having a cold. Many people 

 call all the sparrows " ground birds," just as they call 

 all the httle wood flowers " violets." This term would 

 be appropriate for the Savanna, for it is pre-eminently a 

 ground bird, as it feeds and nests on the ground, and 

 remains most of the time in the grass. It seldom 

 alights on a tree, never, as far as I have observed, 

 amid the green foliage, but sings on the ground or from 

 its low perch on the fence, or on a stone heap. While 

 driving along Bid well Parkway one day last week I 

 had an excellent opportunity of comparing the songs 

 of several species of sparrows, as the vespers, Hudson- 

 ians. Savannas and song sparrows were singing and in 

 hearing at the same time. The gramineus, four or five 

 in number, in the elms by the roadside, were the more 

 conspicuous, each one in turn taking a solo as another 

 finished. Two or three melodias sang the interlude, 



