Sparrows SONG-BIRDS. 



as far away from it as he is able, and, if it is late afternoon, 

 will beguile you with his simple song, from no more ambi- 

 tious perch than a fence rail. The migrant flocks come to 

 us before or during the spring moult, and are not then in 

 full song ; and when they leave, in October, they are quite 

 voiceless. 



Grasshopper Sparrow: Ammodramus savannarum 

 passerinus. 



$ * 



Yellow-winged Sparrow. 



PLATE V. FIG. 8. 



Length : 4.80 inches. 



Male and Female : Line over the eye, centre of crown, lesser wing 

 coverts, and shoulders yellow. Above red-brown with an ash- 

 gray wash ; upper breast brownish drab ; belly whitish ; bill 

 stout and short, dark above, pale below ; tail feathers edged 

 with white ; feet dark. 



Song: Note like a grasshopper's chirp; song somewhat resembling 

 the Chipping Sparrow's, but in a different key. 



Season : Common summer resident. 



Breeds : Throughout its United States range. 



Nest : Like the Vesper Sparrow's, on the ground. 



Eggs : Sparkling white, with spots and flecks of red and brown. 



Range: Eastern United States and southern Canada to the Plains, 

 south to Florida, Cuba, Porto Rico, and coast of Central 

 America. 



If you search for a Sparrow with yellow wings, as one of 

 its names suggests, you will altogether miss this species. 

 But if you look for a plain bird, with yellowish stripes 

 on the crown and over the eyes, lesser wing coverts dull 

 yellow, and bend of the wing bright yellow, who runs elu- 

 sively through the grass, giving a shrill, grasshopper chirp, 

 you will easily locate the Grasshopper Sparrow. The Spar- 

 rows and the Warblers will be inevitable stumbling-blocks 

 to you ; and when you have positively named half a dozen 

 species, and guessed at as many more, you will feel that 

 you have conquered ornithology. This particular Sparrow 

 keeps so persistently to the ground and to low bushes, in 



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