(_Ammodramus savannarum passerinus_) Finch family
_Called also_: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW
_Length_--5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the
English sparrow.
_Male and Female_--A cream-yellow line over the eye; centre of
crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head
blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on
back of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. All other
upper parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab
wash. Underneath brownish drab on breast, shading to soiled
white, and without streaks. Dusky, even, pointed tail feathers
have grayish-white outer margins.
_Range_--Eastern North America, from British provinces to Cuba.
Winters south of the Carolinas.
_Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident.
It is safe to say that no other common bird is so frequently
overlooked as this little sparrow, that keeps persistently to the
grass and low bushes, and only faintly lifts up a weak, wiry voice
that is usually attributed to some insect. At the bend of the wings
only are the feathers really yellow, and even this bright shade often
goes unnoticed as the bird runs shyly through an old dairy field or
grassy pasture. You may all but step upon it before it takes wing and
exhibits itself on the fence-rail, which is usually as far from the
ground as it cares to go. If you are near enough to this perch you may
overhear the _zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e_ that has earned it the name of
grasshopper sparrow. If you persistently follow it too closely, away
it flies, then suddenly drops to the ground where a scrubby bush
affords protection. A curious fact about this bird is that after you
have once become acquainted with it, you find that instead of being a
rare discovery, as you had supposed, it is apt to be a common resident
of almost every field you walk through.