Across the Fields. 



243 



highways. They sometimes lie close, particularly during the breeding season, 

 when they rise almost at your feet, whirring away like some miniature game 

 bird. Alighted again, they sneak off with such rapidity through the grass 



SAVANNA SPARROW. 



which conceals them that though surely expecting to easily see the bird near 

 at hand, you fail till he is unexpectedly flushed again at considerable dis- 

 tance from where you marked him down. 



The Ipswich Sparrow is in effect a pale grayish brown bird, about six 



inches and a half in length. It is a maritime bird, generally found close to 



IDS ich Soarrow t ^ e sea " ^^ e san< ^ dunes of the coast with their scanty 



Ammodramus princeps tufts of beach grass are the regions in which to find these 



(Mayn.). birds, during their migrations and in winter. They 



strongly resemble the Savanna Sparrow and may be readily mistaken for that 



bird. 



The birds are known to breed on Sable Island, Nova Scotia. They 

 migrate along the Atlantic coast and winter regularly as far south as Virginia 

 and rarely to Georgia and points farther south. 



The Ipswich Sparrow is pale grayish above ; the top of the head and the 

 back are streaked with pale and dusky brown. The back of the neck and 



