FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 
389 
audible at greater distances. Each male seems to have a number of 
favorite perches, weeds or fence-posts, which are visited as inclination 
dictates, but he is of too restless a disposition to remain long on any of 
them. The most familiar note is a sharp tsip of alarm or expostu- 
lation heard during migration, but so constantly employed by both 
sexes in the breeding season, even on slight provocation, that one gets 
to think of them as veritable scolds. 
They are more likely to be mistaken for the Vesper Sparrow, which 
they resemble even in flight, than for any other except perhaps the 
Ipswich and Sharp-tailed Sparrows. J. Dwight, Jr. 
Baird's Sparrow {645. Ammodramus bairdi), a bird of the Great 
Plains region, has been once recorded from east of the Mississippi, — Mon- 
tauk Point, L. I., Nov. 13, 1899 (Helme, Auk, 1900, 296). 
546. Ammodramus savannarum australis Mayn. Grass- 
hopper Sparrow. Ads . — Upperparts mixed black, rufous-brown, ashy, and 
cream-buff; crown blackish, a cream-buff line through its center; nape 
rufous-brown, each feather with a small black central spot and bordered by 
ashy; back black, the feathers bordered by cream-buff and with a small 
central tip of rufous-brown; rump rufous-brown and ashy; an orange mark, 
before the eye; bend of the wing yellow, 
lesser wing-coverts yellowish olive-green; 
greater coverts tipped with whitish; tail- 
feathers pointed, of about equal length, dark 
grayish brown, the centers of the feathers 
darker, the end half of the outer feather 
generally dusky whitish; underparts gener- 
ally not streaked; breast and sides buffy; 
belly white. Nestlings have the breast 
spotted with blackish. L., 5*38; W., 2*38; 
T., 1*79; B., *43. 
Remarks . — The yellow on the wing, unstreaked underparts, even, 
pointed tail, and grayish mark on the outer tail-feather are the principal 
characters of this species. 
Range. — E. N. Am, Breeds in Austral zones (sporadically in Transition) 
e. of the Great Plains from s. Wise., s. Ont., and s. N. H. s. to s. La., cen. 
Ala., n. Ga., and n. S. C. ; winters from s. Ills, and N. C. s. to the Bahamas, 
Cuba, Yucatan, and the Gulf coast of Mexico; casual in Maine. 
Washington, very common S. R., Apl. 17-Nov. 20. Ossining, common 
S. R., Apl. 27-Oct. 23. Cambridge, rare S. R., May 16-Sept. 1. N. Ohio, 
common S. R., Apl. 20-Sept. 20. Glen Ellyn, not common S. R., May 4- 
Sept. 13. SE. Minn., common S. R., Apl. 25-Sept. 6. 
Nest, of grasses, sometimes lined with hairs, arched, on the ground. Eggs, 
4-5, white, distinctly spotted and speckled with rufous, *73 x *54. Date, 
Hall Co., Ala., May 11; Richmond, Va., May 25; Chester Co., Pa., May 27; 
se. Minn., June 6. 
Few common birds may be more easily overlooked than this Spar- 
row. Its terrestrial habits and weak notes place it among the birds that 
you are not likely to find unless you know how and where to look for 
them. I remember once introducing this bird and its song to a visiting 
ornithological friend. On returning to his home, greatly to his surprise, 
he found it a common resident of the fields about his house, where, 
owing to his unfamiliarity with its notes and habits, its presence had 
been before unsuspected. 
Fig. 104. Tail of Grasshopper 
Sparrow. 
