Dr. Coues, in his visit to Labrador, in 1860, found this Sparrow abundant in that region in low moist meadows and marshy tracts near the sea-shore, but never noticed it in any other situations. He frequently observed it there feeding on the beds of dried eel-grass along the rocky shores, searching for food in company with the Titlarks and small Sandpipers.
During my visits to the islands of the Bay of Fundy, in one of which I remained a number of days, I had a good opportunity to notice these birds. In many respects their habits undergo noticeable changes during the breeding-season. As they pass north or south in their migrations, they are not particularly shy or difficult to approach, but when they had nests they seemed to become particularly cautious and mistrustful. The male and female sat by turns upon their eggs, but generally one remained within hailing distance, and always gave promptly a signal of danger when the nest was approached, at which the other would glide from the nest, running off on the ground like a mouse. I found it impossible to identify by shooting the parent on the nest, and only accomplished its identification by means of snares. When once lost in the tall grass, it was impossible to find it again, or if it reappeared it was impossible to tell which of the many chirping Sparrows, all of them out of reach of shot, and keeping a sharp lookout on my movements, had any connection with the nest. This manœuvre was gone through with in every nest I found, but I soon learned to distinguish them without the need of gun or snare.
This Sparrow is eminently terrestrial, confining itself almost entirely to the ground, and rarely alighting on anything even so high as a fence. Though frequenting low moist grounds, its nest is always in a dry spot and usually somewhat elevated. The nest is almost always sunk into the ground, is made very simply and loosely of dry grasses, with a lining of softer materials of the same. I have never found any other material than this in the many nests I have examined, although nests of var. alaudinus, in the vicinity of Fort Anderson, are frequently lined with feathers or deers’ hair, according to MacFarlane.
The eggs, five or six in number, vary considerably in their appearance. In shape they are a rounded oval, one end being much more pointed than the other. They measure .68 by .55 of an inch. In some the ground-color, which is of a greenish-white, is plainly visible, being only partially covered by blotches of brown, shaded with red and purple. These blotches are more numerous about the larger end, becoming confluent and forming a corona. In others, the ground-color is entirely concealed by confluent ferruginous fine dots, over which are darker markings of brown and purple and a still darker ring of the same about the larger end.
Passerculus savanna, var. alaudinus, Bonap.
WESTERN SAVANNA SPARROW.
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.