IPSWICH SPARROW. 



sweep of a major seventh, as below. There is also a mixed- 

 toned note in pairs like this, and the full song is a medley 

 of these notes very similar to that of the Goldfinch but 

 lacking its irrepressible jollity and "cut glass" clarity of 

 tone in fact, the song is decidedly wheezy! 



Vivace 



This bird is a common resident of the White Mountain 

 region, where one is perfectly sure to find him not only in 

 the winter but frequently in spring and sometimes in 

 summer. 



Ipswich 



Sparrow 



Passerculus 



princeps 



L. 6.50 inches 



October to 



April 



A winter visitant of the Atlantic coast 

 from Sable Island, Nova Scotia, south to 

 Georgia, the Ipswich Sparrow is not an 

 uncommon denizen of the barren beaches 

 and sand dunes which lie between these 

 points. It is the lightest-colored member 

 of the Sparrow tribe; upper parts pale brown and 

 ashen gray streaked with sepia and cinnamon brown, 

 a white line above the eye and a yellow spot in front 

 of it, or the latter quite absent, yellow also at the bend 

 of the wing as in the Grasshopper Sparrow, the breast 

 and sides narrowly streaked with sepia and pale ochre, 

 the general marking similar to that of the Savannah 

 Sparrow. Nest of dried grasses and moss lined with softer 

 material, generally hidden beside a sheltering tussock of 

 grass, directly upon the ground. Egg, bluish white thickly 

 flecked with cinnamon brown, four-fifths of an inch long. 

 To hear the song of the Ipswich Sparrow one must 

 journey to Sable Island, its breeding place and summer 

 home; one will hear only a few high-toned, tsipping notes 

 of this winter visitor among the bleak sand dunes from late 

 Autumn to early Spring. The earliest records on the 

 southern shores of Long Island are October 12th to 26th 

 and the latest are March 7th to April 3d. A patient 



283 



