230 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



taken at all seasons, but chiefly during the warmer months. 

 The bird is fond also of weevils, and consumes a good many 

 cotton-boll weevils during the winter months. One bird col- 

 lected in a Louisiana cotton field had eaten 7 of these insects, 

 and others smaller numbers. Wherever it is numerous, the 

 Savannah sparrow is highly beneficial to the cotton grower. 

 Its cohsumption of seeds is likewise of a beneficial nature, 

 since it takes mainly grass and weed seed and only a very 

 small proportion of waste wheat and oats. 



GRASSHOPPER SPARROW: Ammodramus savannanim 

 atistraiis Maynard, 



State records. — The grasshopper sparrow is locally dis- 

 tributed as a summer resident, and sparingly present, also, in 

 winter. McCormack has found it at Leighton only in sum- 

 mer; Avery records it as common in the "black lands" in 

 southern Hale County, and he took specimens at Greensboro, 

 November 30, 1891, and in January or February, 1890. Holt 

 collected one at Jackson, February 20 ; one at Carlton, March 

 7; and one at Barachias, November 17 (1912). I saw a pair 

 at Auburn, March 6, and a pair at Dothan, March 12 (1912). 

 L. J. Goldman noted the species frequently at Ardell, March 20 

 to April 5, 1915. At Montgomery, April 19, 1912, there 

 seemed to be a flight of the species, as I saw a dozen or more 

 in a pasture on the river's edge opposite the town. Single 

 individuals were collected at Ashford, November 30, 1916, and 

 Coffee Island, near Coden, December 4, 1916. 



Avery found a nest of this species on the prairie in southern 

 Hale County, May 11, 1889, and McCormack has taken eggs at 

 Leighton on June 15 and July 15. The bird breeds rather 

 commonly in hay meadows on the prairie at Barachias, and 

 young able to fly were seen there June 14, 1911. 



General habits. — This little sparrow is a very inconspicuous 

 member of the fauna ; it is even shyer and more averse to tak- 

 ing flight than the Savannah sparrow, and rarely chooses a 

 higher perch than a weed stalk or a fence from which to de- 

 liver its song. It lives in dry, upland grass fields and is 

 rather local in distribution. Its weak, insectlike song, ^vrit- 

 ten by Chapman as pit-tuck, zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, gives the bird 



