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Range (Eastern North America breeds) (XVIII)

Eastern North America; breeds from Missouri and northern New Jersey north to Labrador and Hudson Bay; and winters from southern Illinois and Virginia southward to Cuba and Mexico.

Washington, abundant T. V., Mch. 20 to May 5; Oct. 14 to Nov. 15; a few winter. Sing Sing, common T. V., Apl. 3 to May 13; Aug. 28 to Oct. 28. Cambridge, abundant T. V., Apl.; Oct.; breeds sparingly. Nest, of grasses and sometimes moss, lined with finer grasses or hair, on the ground. Eggs, four to five, bluish white, thickly marked, sometimes heavily washed, with reddish brown or cinnamon, 78 x 56. This is essentially a bird of the fields and one of the most abundant species of the Maritime Provinces of Canada-in fact, characteristic of them. The roadsides abound with the birds bobbing up and down on the fence posts and chipping vigorously at every passerby. Their boldness is tempered with a certain timidity that becomes apparent when they are followed, for, dropping into the grass, they will slip away with surprising rapidity. They have a startling way, sometimes, of springing up with a whirr of wings almost from under your very feet as you cross the fields where they have been feeding. At the southern limits of their breeding range they gather into irregularly distributed, isolated colonies frequenting wet, boggy meadows, and exhibit a shyness that is not shared by their northern brethren. In the fall, young and old gather into bands and, joining with other species, form an important part of the large flocks of migrating Sparrows that fill the fields and hedgerows.

FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.

The song is insignificant a weak, musical little trill following a grasshopperlike introduction is of such small volume that it can be heard but a few rods. It usually resembles tsip-tsip-tsip' sē'ē-ē-s'r-r-r. More singing is heard toward sunset, when of a quiet evening the trills are 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 expostulation 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. 546. Ammodramus savannarum passerinus (Wils.). GRASS- HOPPER SPARROW; YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW. Ad. - Upper parts 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 olivegreen; greater coverts tipped with whit- FIG. 83. Tail of Grasshopper Sparrow. ish; 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; under parts generally not streaked; breast and sides buffy; belly white. Young in first plumage have the breast spotted with blackish. L., 5-38; W., 2·38; T., 1.79; B., 43.