(_Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna_) Finch family
_Called also_: SAVANNA BUNTING
_Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English
sparrow.
_Male and Female_--Cheeks, space over the eye, and on the bend
of the wings pale yellow. General effect of the upper parts
brownish drab, streaked with black. Wings and tail dusky, the
outer webs of the feathers margined with buff. Under parts
white, heavily streaked with blackish and rufous, the marks on
breast feathers being wedge-shaped. In the autumn the plumage
is often suffused with a yellow tinge.
_Range_--Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico.
Winters south of Illinois and Virginia.
_Migrations_--April. October. A few remain in sheltered
marshes at the north all winter.
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 maritime
provinces, this sparrow is the one that is perhaps most commonly seen.
Every fence-rail has one perched upon it, singing "_Ptsip, ptsip,
ptsip, zee-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 comparatively 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.