242 Bird Studies. 



dusky centres, surrounded by areas of reddish brown, changing to buff and 

 whitish at their edges. The tail is brown with a reddish tinge. It is com- 

 posed of narrow pointed feathers, the outer ones being much the shorter. 

 The breast, sides, and flanks are tinged strongly with buff more or less 

 streaked with dusky. The belly is white. It has no yellow about the eye 

 or on the bend of the wing, thus readily distinguishing it from the other two 

 birds of this group. Leconte's Sparrow is generally less than five inches 

 long. 



The nesting of these three birds is essentially alike. They build nests 

 of grasses and plant fibres on the ground in grassy places. The eggs are 

 white in ground color speckled more or less with varying shades of brown, 

 from pale reddish to almost black. They vary but little in size, being about 

 three quarters of an inch long by half an inch in their smaller diameter, those 

 of the Yellow-winged Sparrow being rather rounder as compared with the 

 other two kinds. 



The Savanna Sparrow is a bird of robust build, about five inches and a 

 half long. In color it is grayish brown above with the broad dusky or black- 

 Savanna Soarrow ^^^^ streaks of the centre of the feathers of the back con- 

 Ammodramus sandwichensis trastiug strongly agalnst their grayish brown edgings. 

 ISO. There is a light yellow spot in front of the eye, frequently 



extending above it, and the same color is noticeable on the bend of the wing. 

 The tail and wings are dusky. The exposed edges of the wing feathers are 

 edged with grayish buff. The tail has the outer web of the feathers white or 

 grayish white. The under parts are white or grayish white, much streaked 

 with dusky and dark reddish brown, the feathers on the breast having arrow- 

 shaped tips of these colors. 



The nest is built, on the ground, of grasses and mosses, and lined with 

 finer plant fibres, grasses, and hair. The eggs are faint bluish white, much 

 speckled and frequently washed with bright reddish brown. They are nearly 

 four fifths of an inch long and less than three fifths of an inch in their other 

 diameter. These birds are found in parts of Eastern North America through- 

 out the year. They breed sparingly from Northern New Jersey, and plenti- 

 fully from the Northern United States to Labrador and Hudson's Bay. They 

 winter from Southern Virginia and Illinois, southward to Cuba and Mexico. 



These are true field birds and may be observed in numbers where they 

 breed and during their migrations in open grassy places or along country 



