SPECIES 13. FRINGILLA 



SAVANNAH FINCH. 



[Plate XXXIV. Fig. 4, Male.] 



PEALE'S Museum, JVb. 6583. 



THE figure of this delicately marked Sparrow was drawn 

 from a very beautiful male, and is a faithful representation of 

 the original. 



The length is five and a half inches, extent eight and a half; 

 bill pale brown; eyebrows Naples yellow; breast and whole 

 lower parts pure white, the former marked with small pointed 

 spots of brown ; upper parts a pale whitish drab, mottled with 

 reddish brown; wing-coverts edged and tipt with white; tertials 

 black, edged with white and bay; legs pale clay; ear feathers 

 tinged with Naples yellow. The female and young males are 

 less and much darker. 



This is probably the most timid of all our Sparrows. In win- 

 ter it frequents the sea shores; but as spring approaches migrates 

 to the interior, as I have lately discovered, building its nest in 

 the grass nearly in the same form, though with fewer materials, 

 as that of the Bay-winged Bunting. On the twenty -third of 

 May I found one of these at the root of a clump of rushes in a 

 grass field, with three young, nearly ready to fly. The female 

 counterfeited lameness, spreading her wings and tail, and using 

 many affectionate stratagems to allure me from the place. The 

 eggs I have never seen. 



