Classic Book Library : Science : Bird Neighbors. : Chapter 94 : Page 1 of 2

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.