110 THE SANDWICH SPARROW. 
Tacoma before the first week in May, and they are not certainly found before 
the middle of that month. Open prairie is most frequently selected for a 
site, and its close-cropped mossy surface often requires considerable ingenuity 
of concealment on the bird’s part. Ploughed ground, where undisturbed, is 
eagerly utilized. At other times a shallow cup is scraped at the base of a 
small fern, or the protection of a fallen limb is sought. 
The eggs, from three to five in number, are perhaps the most handsomely, 
certainly the most quaintly marked of any in the sparrow family. The ground 
color is grayish white; and this, in addition to sundry frecklings and cloudings 
of lavender, is spotted, blotched, and scrawled, with old chestnut. 
The female sits closely and sometimes will not leave the nest until 
removed. She seldom flies at that, but steps off and trips along the ground 
for some distance. Then she walks about uneasily or pretends to feed, 
venturing little expression of concern. Curiously, her liege lord never appears, 
either, in defense of his home, but after the young are hatched he does his 
fair share in feeding them. 
No. 41. 
SANDWICH SPARROW. 
A. O. U. No. 542. Passerculus sandwichensis (Gmelin). 
Synonym.—LARGER SAVANNA SPARROW. 
Description.—Adults: General tone of upper plumage grayish brown—the 
feathers blackish centrally with much edging of grayish-brown (sometimes 
bay), flaxen and whitish; a mesial crown-stripe dull buffy, or tinged ante- 
riorly with yellowish; lateral stripes with grayish brown edging reduced; 
a broad superciliary stripe yellow, clearest over lore, paling posteriorly; cheeks 
buffy with. some mingling and outcropping of dusky; underparts whitish, 
clearest on throat, washed with buffy on sides, heavily and sharply streaked 
on sides of throat, breast, sides, flanks and thighs with dusky; streaks 
nearly confluent on sides of throat, thus defining submalar area of whitish; 
streaks darkest and wedge-shaped on breast, more diffused and edged with 
buffy posteriorly; under tail-coverts usually but not always with concealed 
wedge-shaped streaks of dusky; bill dusky or dull horn-color above, lighter 
below; feet palest; iris dark brown. Fall specimens are brighter; the yellow, 
no longer prominent in superciliary stripe, is diffused over plumage of entire 
head and, occasionally, down sides; the bend of the wing is pale yellow (or not) ; 
the sides are more strongly suffused with buffy which usually extends across 
breast. Length about 5.75 (146); wing 2.99 (76); tail 2.00 (51); bill .47 (12); 
tarsus .88 (22.5). 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size (but much more robust in appearance 
than a Warbler); general streaky appearance; the striation of the head, viewed 
from before, radiates in twelve alternating areas of black and white (or yellow) : 
larger and lighter than the (rare) Savanna Sparrow (P. s. savanna); larger. 
