SAVANNAH FINCH.

[Plate XXXIV.-Fig. 4, Male.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 6583.

THE figure of this delicately marked Sparrow was drawn from a very beautiful male, and is a faithful representation of the original.

The length is five and a half inches, extent eight and a half; bill pale brown; eyebrows Naples yellow; breast and whole lower parts pure white, the former marked with small pointed spots of brown; upper parts a pale whitish drab, mottled with reddish brown; wing-coverts edged and tipt with white; tertials black, edged with white and bay; legs pale clay; ear feathers tinged with Naples yellow. The female and young males are less and much darker.

This is probably the most timid of all our Sparrows. In winter it frequents the sea shores; but as spring approaches migrates to the interior, as I have lately discovered, building its nest in the grass nearly in the same form, though with fewer materials, as that of the Bay-winged Bunting. On the twenty-third of May I found one of these at the root of a clump of rushes in a grass field, with three young, nearly ready to fly. The female counterfeited lameness, spreading her wings and tail, and using many affectionate stratagems to allure me from the place. The eggs I have never seen.

FRINGILLA SAVANNA.

SAVANNAH SPARROW.

[Plate XXII.-Fig. 3.-Female.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 6584.

THIS new species is an inhabitant of the low countries on the Atlantic coast, from Savannah, where I first discovered it, to the State of New York; and is generally resident in these places, though rarely found inland, or far from the sea shore. The drawing of this bird was in the hands of the engraver before I was aware that the male was so much its superior in beauty of markings and in general colours. With the representation of the male are given particulars of their nest, eggs, and manners. I have found these birds numerous on the sea shore, in the state of New Jersey, particularly near Great Egg harbour. A pair of these I presented to Mr. Peale of this city, in whose noble collection they now occupy a place.

The female of the Savannah Sparrow is five inches and a half long, and eight and a half in extent; the plumage of the back is mottled with black, bright bay and whitish; chin white; breast marked with pointed spots of black, edged with bay, running in chains from each base of the lower mandible; sides touched with long streaks of the same; temples marked with a spot of delicate yellow; ear feathers slightly tinged with the same; belly white, and a little streaked; inside of the shoulders and lining of the wing pale yellowish; first and second rows of wing coverts tipt with whitish; secondaries next the body pointed and very black, edged also with bay; tail slightly forked, and without any. white feathers; legs pale flesh colour; hind claw pretty long.

The very slight distinctions of colour which nature has drawn between many distinct species of this family of Finches, render these minute and tedious descriptions absolutely necessary, that the particular species may be precisely discriminated.

SPECIES 14. FRINGILLA FERRUGINEA.*

FOX-COLOURED SPARROW.

[Plate XXII.-Fig. 4.]

Rusty Bunting, Arct. Zool. p. 364, No. 231. Ib. 233.—Ferruginous Finch, Ib. 375, No. 251.—Fringilla rufa, BARTRAM, p. 291.— PEALE'S Museum, No. 6092.

THIS plump and pretty species arrives in Pennsylvania from the north about the twentieth of October; frequents low sheltered thickets; associates in little flocks of ten or twelve, and is almost continually scraping the ground, and rustling among the fallen leaves. I found this bird numerous in November among the rich cultivated flats that border the river Connecticut; and was informed that it leaves those places in spring. I also found it in the northern parts of the state of Vermont. Along the borders of the great reed and cypress swamps of Virginia, and North and South Carolina, as well as around the rice plantations, I observed this bird very frequently. They also inhabit Newfoundland. They are rather of a solitary nature, seldom feeding in the open fields; but generally under thickets, or among tall rank weeds on the edges of fields. They sometimes associate with the Snow-bird, but more generally keep by themselves. Their manners very much resemble those of the Red-eyed Bunting (Plate X, fig. 4.); they are silent, tame, and unsuspicious. They have generally no other note while here than a shep, shep; yet I suspect they have some song in the places where

* Fringilla iliaca, MERREM, Beytr. 11, p. 40. t. 10.-GMEL. 1, p. 923.-LATH. Ind. Orn. 1, p. 438.-Fringilla ferruginea, GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 921. LATH. Syn. 111, p. 272. 31.--Ibid. Ind Orn. 1, p. 445.

PENNANT.

they breed; for I once heard a single one, a little before the time they leave us, warble out a few very sweet low notes.

The Fox-coloured Sparrow is six inches long, and nine and a quarter broad; the upper part of the head and neck is cinereous, edged with rust colour; back handsomely mottled with reddish brown and cinereous; wings and tail bright ferruginous; the primaries dusky within and at the tips, the first and second rows. of coverts, tipt with white; breast and belly white; the former, as well as the ear feathers, marked with large blotches of bright bay, or reddish brown, and the beginning of the belly with little arrow-shaped spots of black; the tail coverts and tail are a bright fox colour; the legs and feet a dirty brownish white, or clay colour, and very strong; the bill is strong, dusky above and yellow below; iris of the eye hazel. The chief difference in the female is that the wings are not of so bright a bay, inclining more to a drab; yet this is scarcely observable, unless by a comparison of the two together. They are generally very fat, live on grass seeds, eggs of insects, and gravel.