Page:Birdcraft-1897.djvu/233

  Seaside Sparrow: Ammodramus maritimus.


 * Length:
 * 5.75-6.25 inches.


 * Male and Female:
 * Very dull brownish gray bird. Gray wash on shoulders and the edges of some feathers. Breast mottled gray with buff tinge. Throat yellow-white. Wings and tail dusky. Yellow spot before eye and yellow mark on edge of wing, the only bright colouring. Bill lead-coloured; dark feet.


 * Song:
 * Very similar to that of the last species.


 * Season:
 * Common summer resident, breeding on salt-marshes. Present December 9, 1889. Probably sometimes winters. (Averill.)


 * Breeds:
 * Through range.


 * Nest and Eggs:
 * Indistinguishable from last species.


 * Range:
 * Salt-marshes of the Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts south-ward, and along the Gulf coast to the Rio Grande.

One of our two common Sparrows that have a maritime tarn of mind, breeding freely about Fairfield and Stratford on the marshes. The two species are so closely associated that it is easy to confuse them; the Seaside Sparrow has the least definite colouring, no distinet black stripes on the back, and a blunt tail.

  White-crowned Sparrow: Zonotrichia leucophrys.


 * Length:
 * 6.50-7 inches.


 * Male and Female:
 * White crown set between two black stripes; white eye stripes. Cheeks, throat, and back of neck gray. Below light gray; some buff on sides and belly. Wings edged with bay, and having two white cross-bars; tail plain. Female, head rusty, paler all through. Bill and feet reddish brown.


 * Song:
 * 6 or 7 notes, forming a plaintive cadence.


 * Season:
 * Rare migrant; October and May.


 * Breeds:
 * Chiefly in the Rocky Mountain region (including Sierra Nevada), and northeast to Labrador.


 * Nest and Eggs:
 * Not to be distinguished from those of the White-throated Sparrow.


 * Range:
 * North America at large.

One of the largest Sparrows, and also conspicuously marked, the White-crown is scarcely the inferior of the White-throat itself. It has a northerly range, and only 