Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 
Look for the savanna sparrow in salt marshes, marshy or 
upland pastures, never far inland, and if you see a sparrowy 
bird, unusually white and heavily streaked beneath, and with 
pale yellow markings about the eye and on the bend of the wing, 
you may still make several guesses at its identity before the weak, 
little insect-like trill finally establishes it. Whoever can correctly 
name every sparrow and warbler on sight is a person to be 
envied, if, indeed, he exists at all. 
In the lowlands of Nova Scotia and, in fact, of all the mari- 
time provinces, this sparrow is the one that is perhaps most com- 
monly seen. Every fence-rail has one perched upon it, singing 
' ' Ptsip, ptsip, ptsip, ^ee-e-e-e-e ” close to the ear of the passer-by, 
who otherwise might not hear the low grasshopper-like song. At 
the north the bird somehow loses the shyness that makes it com- 
paratively little known farther south. Depending upon the scrub 
and grass to conceal it, you may almost tread upon it before it 
startles you by its sudden rising with a whirring noise, only to 
drop to the ground again just as suddenly a few yards farther 
away, where it scuds among the underbrush and is lost to sight. 
Tall weeds and fence-rails are as high and exposed situations as 
it is likely to select while singing. It is most distinctively a 
ground bird, and flat upon the pasture or in a slightly hollowed 
cup it has the merest apology for a nest. Only a few wisps of 
grass are laid in the cavity to receive the pale-green eggs, that are 
covered most curiously with blotches of brown of many shapes 
and tints. 
Seaside Sparrow 
( Ammodramus maritimus) Finch family 
Called also: MEADOW CHIPPY; SEASIDE FINCH 
Length — 6 inches. A shade smaller than the English sparrow. 
Male and Female — Upper parts dusky grayish or olivaceous brown, 
inclining to gray on shoulders and on edges of some feathers. 
Wings and tail darkest. Throat yellowish white, shading to 
gray on breast, which is indistinctly mottled and streaked. 
A yellow spot before the eye and on bend of the wing, the 
bird’s characteristic marks. Blunt tail. 
Range — Atlantic seaboard, from Georgia northward. Usually 
winters south of Virginia. 
Migrations — April. November. A few remain in sheltered 
marshes all winter. 
56 
