SAVANNAH FINCH. 313 
circles of white; sides under the wings, buff, spotted with black, 
wing-coverts and tertials, black, broadly edged with light reddish buff; 
tail, cuneiform, short ; all the feathers, sharp-pointed’; legs, a yellow 
clay color ; irides, hazel. : ; : 
J examined many of these birds, and found but little difference in 
the color and markings of their plumage. 
i 
—_——~——. 
SAVANNAH FINCH.—FRINGILLA SAVANNA. — Fic. 153.— 
: ; Macer.* 
Peale’s Museum, No. 6583. 
ZONOTRICHIA? SAVANNA. —Jarnine. 
Fringilla Savanna, Bonap. Synop. p. 108. 
Tus delicately-marked Sparrow has been already taken notice of, 
in a preceding part of this work, where a figure of the female is intro- 
duced. Fig. 153 was drawn from a very beautiful male, and is a 
faithful representation of the original. 
The length is five and a half inches; extent, eight and a half; bill, 
pale brown; eyebrows, Naples yellow; breast and whole lower parts, 
pure white, the former marked with small, pointed spots of brown; up- 
per parts, a pale whitish drab, mottled with reddish brown; wing- 
coverts, edged and tipped with white; tertials, black, edged with 
white and bay; legs, pale clay; ear-feathers, tinged with Naples yel- 
low. The female and young males are less, and much darker. 
This is, probably, the most timid of all our Sparrows. In winter, it 
frequents the sea-shores; but, as spring approaches, migrates to the 
interior, as I have lately discovered, building its nest in the grass, 
nearly in the same form, though with fewer materials, as that of the 
Bay-winged Bunting. On the 23d of May, I found one of these at the 
root of a clump of rushes in a grass field, with three young, nearly 
réady to fly. The female counterfeited lameness, spreading her wings. 
and tail, and using many affectionate stratagems to allure me from the 
place. The eggs I have never seen. 
* The female is described at p. 224, 
27 
