_Passerculus alaudinus_, BP. Comptes Rendus, XXXVII, Dec. 1853, 918,
California.—IB. Notes Ornithologiques Delattre, 1854, 18 (reprint
of preceding).—_Baird_, Birds N. Am. 1858, 446, pl. xlvi.—COOPER &
SUCKLEY, 197, pl. xxviii, f. 2.—ELLIOT, Illust. Am. B. III.—DALL &
BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 284 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1,
181. _Passerculus savanna_ and _P. anthinus_, DALL & BANNISTER,
Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, pp. 283, 284.
SP. CHAR. Similar to _P. savanna_, but smaller; the bill slenderer and
more elongated. Little of yellow in the superciliary stripe (most
distinct anteriorly); the rest of the head without any tinge of the
same. General color much paler and grayer than in _P. savanna_. Breast
with only a few spots. Length, 5.25; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.30.
HAB. Middle and Western Provinces of North America; south to Orizaba,
north to Alaska (Kodiak) and the Arctic coast. Oaxaca (SCL. Oct.);
Vera Cruz (winter, SUMICHRAST).
This western race of _P. savanna_ is smaller, considerably paler in
general colors, the superciliary stripe with little yellow in it, and
the bill more slender, and longer. In coloration, some Atlantic coast
specimens often exhibit an approximation, especially in the pale tint
of the superciliary stripe; but the bill is always decidedly more
attenuated in _alaudinus_.
The Western Savanna Sparrow is a common species throughout the Western
Province of North America, from the plains to California, and from
Alaska to Mexico. In California it appears to be replaced along the
Pacific coast by the variety _anthinus_, a quite different and very
local form. In Alaska, specimens were obtained by the naturalists of
the Russian Telegraph Expedition at various localities, chiefly in the
interior, and on the Yukon it was obtained by Mr. Lockhart. Dr. Cooper
found it at Fort Steilacoom, in Washington Territory, where it was in
company with _P. sandwichensis_, in the wet meadows. In California
this species inhabits chiefly, according to Dr. Cooper, the dry plains
of the interior of the State. The statement of the occurrence of this
form anywhere along the coast of California should be received with
considerable doubt, since in the large series of these birds all
specimens from this region are of the variety _anthinus_, an
exclusively littoral type.
HABITS. The Western Savanna Sparrow was found throughout the Great
Basin, by Mr. Ridgway, in all wet, grassy situations, in which
preference it is like its eastern relative. It was very abundant at
Carson City, inhabiting exclusively the meadows. At Salt Lake City it
was also very abundant, frequenting the wet meadows near the Jordan.
This bird was also obtained at Sitka by Bischoff, and was found on the
Yukon by Mr. Lockhart. It is the only species found in the Valley of
the Mackenzie, up to the Arctic coast.
Dr. Cooper also met with it among the low meadows of Washington
Territory, where they arrived in March, and remained until late in
October. They were usually found among the grass, from which they
rarely rise, except to sing their faint and lisping trill from a weed
or some low bush. Mr. Ridgway represents this song as corresponding
with the syllables _witz-witz-wih´-tzull_. This, he states, is uttered
in a weak and lisping manner, as the bird perches on a bush beside the
brook, or on a fence, or as it nestles among the grass on the ground.
Dr. Cooper speaks of them as only winter visitants in California, and
there residing only on the dry interior plains, as far south as San
Diego, where they remain in large flocks until April. He has never met
with this bird during the summer months, though some are supposed to
remain and breed in the high prairies. He did not meet with any about
the summits of the Sierra Nevada, in September. They appeared to
prefer the dry rolling prairies to marshes, though they were
occasionally found in the latter.
This species is also a migratory visitant to the Department of Vera
Cruz, Mexico, where they are said by Sumichrast to pass the winter.
Their nests are built upon the ground, and are composed almost
entirely of the dry stems of grasses, and are lined with finer
materials of the same. Their eggs measure .75 of an inch in length by
.52 in breadth, have a greenish-white ground, over which are
distributed numerous markings, spots, and blotches of various sizes,
of a light purplish-brown and a deeper red-brown, confluent about the
larger end, where they form a crown.
Near Fort Anderson nests were found in great numbers, no less than two
hundred and four having been obtained during four summers in that
locality. These nests were all taken on the ground, under low grass,
in dry spots in a large marshy prairie, and it is stated that they
were never found in any other situation or locality.
Passerculus savanna, var. sandwichensis, BAIRD.