SAVANNA SPARROW. 315 



imiiierous on the fore part and sides ; wing coverts and inner quills much 

 edged and tipped with bay ; crown, like back, without median stripe ; line over 

 and ring round eye, whitish ; feet, pale. Length, 5j-6i ; wing, 2J-3J ; tail, 

 2i-2J. 



Hab. — Eastern North America to the Plains, from Nova Scotia and Ontario 

 southward, breeds from Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri northward. 



Nest, a deep ciip-shaped hollow in the ground, lined with grass and hair. 



Eggs, four, grayish-white, heavily clouded with chocolate-brown. 



This is one of the " Gray Birds," and the most abundant in 

 Ontario of the several species to which this name is applied. 



Its song is very sweet and plaintive, and being most frequently 

 uttered in the evening about sundown, it has gained for the bird the 

 appropriate name of Vesper Sparrow. 



It is a summer resident, arriving in Southern Ontario toward the 

 end of April, and soon becoming common all over the country. It 

 does not penetrate far north in the Province, and in Manitoba it is 

 replaced by the Western Vesper Sparrow, a pale gray form peculiar 

 to the prairies. 



The favorite perch of the male is the top of a fence post, and his 

 nesting place among the grass close by. In the fall the birds get to 

 be abundant before leaving, but from their habit of skulking among 

 the rank weeds, they are not so conspicuous as the blackbirds and 

 other species which keep in flocks on the wing. They move to the 

 south in October, none having been observed during the winter. 



Genus AMMODRAMUS Swainson. 



Subgenus PASSERCULUS Bonaparte. 



AMMODRAMUS SANDWICHENSIS SAVANNA (Wils.). 



225. Savanna Sparrow. (542«) 



Above, brownish-gray, streaked with blackish, whitish-gray and pale 

 bay, the streaks largest on the inner scapulars, smallest on the cervix, the 

 crown divided by an obscure whitish line ; superciliary line and edge of wing, 

 yellowish ; sometimes an obscure yellowish suffusion about the head ; below,, 

 white, pure or with faint buffy shade, thickly streaked with dusky, the 

 individual spots edged with brown, mostly arrow-shaped, running in chains 

 along the sides, and often aggregated in an obscure blotch on the breast ; 

 wings and tail, dusky, the wing coverts and inner secondaries black edged and 

 tipped with bay. Length, 5i-5| , wing, 24-2| ; tail, 2-2J. 



