FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: SAVANNAH SPARROW 721 
August 1-14, 1910, were also mainly in the breeding plumage, though 
beginning to molt. 
Near Las Vegas, from August 29 to September 1, 1903, small flocks 
were frequently seen passing over our camp, while numbers were flushed 
from the fences. At this time they were all in the brown plumage. Near 
Espanola early in September, 1906, they were also numerous in the fields 
and along the roads. In one place perhaps three hundred were seen on a 
wire fence, mostly in the brown plumage. 
At Mesilla Park on August 1, 1913, and subsequently, Professor 
Merrill writes, “I saw a flock of nearly a dozen near the college, the 
males still with the black and white distinct. Usually they do not come 
till the first or middle of October, leaving again about May 1st. In 
winter they are very abundant in huge flocks. I have never recorded 
them breeding here, but the early appearance this j^ear leads me to think 
that the southern breeding limit may not be far from here” (MS). 
Like many other plains birds, the Lark Bunting, or Prairie Bobolink, 
as Mr. Cameron called it, has a notable song. Its flight song, Mr. Bent 
describes as “particularly rich and joyous.” In Colorado, Mr. E. R. 
Warren says, courtship and love songs begin the middle of May, and 
from then on it is a common sight to see the males up in the air singing. 
They rise in the air, as Doctor Heermann describes it, “with a tremulous 
fluttering motion of the wings . . . singing the while and until again 
alighting, a disconnected but not unmusical chant” (1859, p. 16). 
NEVADA SAVANNAH SPARROW: Passerculus sandwichensis nevadensis Grinnell 
Description. — Wing: 2.6 inches. Median crown stripe grayish or huffy and 
line over eye yellowish or whitish, lateral crown stripes broadly black streaked on 
pale clay color; feathers of back with broad black central areas margined with whitish; 
tippings of wing coverts and edgings of inner 
quills broadly ivhitish; throat (bordered by dark 
malar streaks), post-pectoral region, and crissum 
pure white, pectoral region sharply black- 
streaked on pale cream-buff ground. 
Range. —Northeastern California, Nevada, Fig. 122. Savannah Sparrow 
northwestern Montana, and Great Basin to (Ammodramus sandwichensis ), 
North Dakota and western Nebraska south in s ^ n 
winter to northern Mexico. 
State Records. —Nevada Savannah Sparrows breed abundantly in the northern 
half of Colorado though less commonly along the main chain of the RockyMountains 
to the southern part of the State, and in New Mexico they were common in the 
meadows around Taos, at 7,400 feet, July 14, 1904, where they were presumably 
breeding (Bailey). [They were found at Lake Burford, May 28 and 30 and June 6, 
1918, also presumably breeding though no nests were found (Wetmore).] They 
were frequently seen by Kalmbach in tall grass areas near Koehler Junction, from the 
time of his arrival, July 28, to October 24, 1913. They are also found in east-central 
Arizona at Marsh Lake in the White Mountains (Jackson and Goldman). 
