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Range (Breeds on Sable Island winters)

Breeds on Sable Island; winters southward along the coast regularly to Virginia and rarely to Georgia. Cambridge, casual, one instance, Oct.

Those who care to visit in winter the bleak, wind-swept sand hillocks of our Atlantic coast will find this bird much less rare than it was once supposed to be. It never strays far from the waving tufts of coarse beach-grass that scantily cover the sand drifts, and single individuals may be found skulking among such surroundings. They seldom allow a near approach, but fly wildly away to considerable distances, and on alighting run off so rapidly that they are difficult to find a second time. The flight is rapid and irregular, and the birds may easily be mistaken for Savanna Sparrows, with which, during the migrations, they are sometimes associated. On rare occasions a sharp chirp is heard, but as a rule they are silent.

FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.

It is an interesting species, discovered in 1868, and at first mistaken for Baird's Sparrow of the far west, a species, by the way, that it resembles very little. For many years nothing was known of its breeding range. In 1884 some large eggs from Sable Island, Nova Scotia, supposed to be of the Savanna Sparrow, were unearthed at the National Museum, Washington, and later a summer specimen of the Ipswich Sparrow was obtained from this island. Ten years later I had the pleasure of visiting Sable Island and solving all the conjectures that had become current regarding the Ipswich Sparrow's summer home. The bird proved to much resemble the Savanna Sparrow in breeding habits, song, nest, and eggs.

J. DWIGHT, JR. 542a. Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna (Wils.). SA-