940 KEPOBT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Subgenus PASSERCULUS Bonaparte. 



210. (542). Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna (WiLS.). 



Savanna Sparrow. 



Above, brownish-gray, streaked with blackish, whitish-gray and 

 pale bay; the streaks largest on the inner scapulars, smallest on the 

 cervix; the crown divided by an obscure whitish line; superciliary line 

 and edge of wing, yellowish; sometimes an obscure yellowish suffusion 

 about the head; below, white, pure, or with faint buffy shade, thickly 

 streaked with dusky, the individual spots edged with brown, mostly 

 arrow-shaped, running in chains along the sides and often aggregated 

 in an obscure blotch on the breast; wings and tail, dusky; the wing- 

 coverts and inner secondaries, black, edged and tipped with bay. 



Length, about 4.85-5.50; wing, 2.60-2.90 (2.73); tail, '1.90-2.20 

 (2.07). 



RANGE. Eastern North America, from Mexico and Cuba to Labra- 

 dor and Hudson Bay. Breeds from Missouri, southern Illinois and 

 New Jersey north. Winters from Indiana and Virginia southward. 



Nest, in depression on ground; of grass. Eggs, 3-6; greenish or 

 grayish-white, spotted and blotched most thickly about the larger end 

 with light-brown and lilac; .76 by .54. 



The Savanna Sparrow is, some seasons at least, a rare resident in 

 the lower Wabash Valley. Mr. J. A. Balmer in 1888 noted it as a 

 winter resident in Knox County, and Mr. Robert Ridgway at that 

 season across the Wabash River at Mt. Carmel, 111., where he also has 

 taken its nest and eggs. The bulk of these Sparrows pass northward 

 with us through April. At Brookville they are often found in flocks, 

 frequenting the pastures, meadows and stubble of the upland farms. 

 In the river valleys they are rare. All I have ever seen in the spring 

 have been between April 9, 1887, and April 24 (1886). 



They are inconspicuous, and will often be overlooked, as they run 

 or crawl among the grass and weeds, unless when too closely pressed, 

 they rise but a little piece above the ground and all fly away to an- 

 other field. In 1897 it was seen at Richmond, March 26 and April 

 29 (Hadley). In 1892, at Bloomington, March 30 (Kindle); at Terre 

 Haute, May 1, 1890 (Evermann); Spearsville, May 3, 1894 (Barnett). 

 They were first noted in Cook County, 111., in 1896, March 31; in 

 1895, April 1; in 1897, April 8 (Tallman). While many of them leave 

 early in May, they are often common after the middle of that month; 

 May 18, 1895; May 23, 1896. Mr. J. G. Parker, Jr., thinks it breeds 

 not uncommonly about Calumet Lake, where he collected one July 16, 



