FINCHES. 205 



streaked, most finely upon the crown. Superciliary line and 

 edge of the wing, yellowish ; a faint line dividing the crown, 

 whitish. Beneath, white (or bufiish), with dark streaks, 

 brown-edged. A little bay is to be found on the wings, and 

 among the interscapulars. 



b. The nest is built on the ground, in the various summer 

 haunts of this bird. It is composed chiefly of dry grasses, 

 and in eastern Massachusetts is finished in the second week 

 of May. Four or five eggs are then laid, averaging .75X-55 

 of an inch, exhibiting great variation, and often approaching 

 those of other Sparrows. Some are dull white, faintly and 

 minutely marked, most thickly at the crown. Dr. Brewer 

 says : " In some the ground color, which is of a greenish white, 

 is plainly visible, being only partially covered with blotches 

 of brown, shaded with red and purple. These blotches are 

 more numerous about the larger end, becoming confluent and 

 forming a corona. In others the ground color is entirely con- 

 cealed by confluent ferruginous fine dots, over which are 

 darker markings of brown and purple and a still darker ring 

 of the same about the larger end." 



c. The Savannah Sparrows show a marked preference for 

 the sea-coast, and the islands near it, and are to be found much 

 farther to the northward along the coast-line than in the inte- 

 rior, where, however, they frequently occur to the southward of 

 the mountain-chains in northern New England. To the in- 

 land, rather than along the shore, they are locally distributed, 

 being the most colonial of all our Sparrows. Though collec- 

 tive, they do not cluster as the Swallows do, but many often 

 pass the summer in one place, and several pairs frequent the 

 same field, or the same strip of shore. They reach eastern 

 Massachusetts, where they are particularly " abundant in the 

 salt-water marshes and their neighborhood," in the second or 

 third week of April ; but many soon pass to the northward. 



They have a settlement, if I may so call it, at a place in the 

 White Mountains, where I made the following observations. 

 They there inhabited the fields and pastui-e-lands. In the ear- 

 lier part of July they were seen in small flocks, or families, to 

 visit gardens in the search of food ; and, even so late as the 



