72 



SAVANNAH FINCH. 

 FRINGILLA SAVANNA. 

 [Plate XXXIV.— Fig. 4, Male^, 



Peale's Museum, No. 6583. 



THIS delicately marked Sparrow has been already taken no- 

 tice of in a preceding part of this work, where a figure of the female 

 was introduced. The present figure was drawn from a very beau- 

 tiful 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; upper parts a pale whitish drab, mottled with reddish 

 brown; wing-coverts edged and tipt with white; tertials black, 

 edged with white and bay ; legs pale clay; ear feathers tinged with 

 Naples yellow. The female and young males are less and much 

 darker. 



This is probably the most timid of all our Sparrows. In win- 

 ter 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, tho with fewer materials, as that of 

 the Bay-winged Bunting. On the twenty-third of May I found one 

 of these at the root of a clump of rushes in a grass field, with three 

 young, nearly ready to fly. The female counterfeited lameness, 

 spreading its wings and tail, and using many affectionate strata- 

 gems to allure me from the place. The eggs I have never seen. 



