80 SANDPIPERS — SAVANA SPARROW. 



with my gun, and several species of birds rewarded my search which 

 will be spoken of in their place, but my attention was especially 

 drawn to the small flocks of the ruddy plover or sanderling ( Calidris 

 arenaria) , which were occasionally seen alone or with large flocks 

 of other shore birds. I saw numbers of them during my stay on 

 the island, but seldom many at a time. They are very wild and 

 hard to approach, and keep quite close together in small flocks of 

 from ten to thirty ; their flight is wilder and their call different from 

 that of the other birds with which tliey associated. I found them 

 very plump and fat, and they make very nice eating. 



Friday the 8th. I saw to-day several very interesting species of 

 birds, and while we are on the subject I will give you a brief 

 account of the savanna sparrow {Passeiruliis savanna), and the 

 w^hite rumped sandpiper ( Ti'inga bonapartei) . The savanna spar- 

 row is perhaps the most abundant of all the small land birds that 

 inhabit these regions. It is a tame and familiar little fellow, and 

 feeds without fear about the doorsteps, and in the dooryard, 

 building its nest, laying its eggs, and rearing its young often in 

 grassy clumps not two rods from the door. They are common all 

 over the islands and on the mainland, and their song is a well 

 known attraction to a native of the place. I shot a good many and 

 found them to present an unusually decided shade of plumage, 

 with the dark and white colors plainly marked. There was very 

 little yellow about the head and eye, and of some twenty specimens 

 none at all on the wing shoulders. I shot, one day, four of these 

 birds, none of which had a particle of yellow upon them anywhere 

 that I could distinguish ; a small tuft of white feathers at the base 

 of the primary coverts of the shoulder gave the appearance of a 

 white edging in the place of the usual yellow. The birds were all 

 remarkably full in coloration, and decided in plumage ; the white 

 very clear ; the dark inverted arrowpoints quite distinct, as were also 

 the grayish and buff" edgings everywhere. One specimen alone 

 had the buffy suffusion covering the breast. I cannot say that the 

 rule holds good constantly, but in some thirty specimens the ^ 

 had the yellow on the wing shoulder, while the 9 ^-nd young of 



