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T H E Y E L L O W - W I N G E D S P A R R O W .
FRINGILLA PASSERINA, WILS.
P L A T E C X X X . MALE.
THIS is another of those remarkable species which pass unobserved
from the Mexican dominions and some of the West India Islands, to
the middle portions of our Atlantic States. Not one of the species have
I ever met with in Louisiana, the Floridas, any of the other Southern
States, or those west of the Alleghany range; while from Maryland to
Maine it is found in considerable numbers, and is not uncommon in Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. In all the States it
prefers the neighbourhood of the coast and a light sandy soil. It arrives
in the latter districts about the 10th of May, and throws itself into the
open newly-ploughed fields, and those covered with the valuable red
clover. It is never found in the woodlands. Its food consists of such
insects and larva? as are found on the ground, together with the seeds of
grasses and other plants.
Its flight is low, short, and performed by a kind of constant tremor of
the wings, resembling that of a young bird. It alights on the tops of low
bushes, fence-rails, and tall grasses, to sing its unmusical ditty, composed
of a few notes weakly enunciated at intervals, but sufficing to manifest its
attachment to its mate. Almost unregarded, it raises two broods in the
season, perhaps three when it has chosen the warmer sandy soils in the
vicinity of the sea, where it is evidently more abundant than in the interior
of the country.
The nest of the Yellow-winged Sparrow is as simple as its owner is
bsnrg'TBCN ,-/>i<n» & 1 ebncrase ^9HHw-ri8niy*orafio g n i r i L - N N SD larr
innocent and gentle. It is placed on the ground, and is formed of light
dry grasses, with a scanty fining of withered fibrous roots and horse hair.
The female deposits her first egg about the 20th of May. The eggs are
four or five, of a dingy white, sprinkled with brown spots. The young
follow their parents on the ground for a short time, after which they separate
and search for food singly. This species, indeed, never congregates,
as almost all others of its tribe do, before they depart from us, but
the individuals seem to move off in a sulky mood, and in so concealed a
way, that their winter quarters are yet unknown.
Y E L L O W - W I N G E D SPARROW. 181
Scarcely any difference is perceptible in the plumage of the sexes, and
by the time the young return to us the following spring, they have obtained
the full plumage of their parents.
F R I N G I L L A P A S S E K I N A , Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 109.
Y E L L O W - W I N G E D SPARROW, F R I N G I L L A P A S S E R I N A , Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iiip.
76. pi. 24. fig. 5.
S A V A N N A H F I N C H , or Y E L L O W - S H O U L D E R E D B U N T I N G ( F R I N G I L L A S A V A N A R U M ,
Gmel.) Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 494.
Bill short, conical, acute; upper mandible slightly convex in its dorsal
outline, angular, and encroaching a little on the forehead, of the same
breadth as the lower, with sharp and inflected edges; lower mandible also
inflected ont he edges; gap-line slightly deflected at the base. Nostrils
basal, roundish, open, concealed by the feathers. Head rather large,
neck short, body full. Feet of moderate length, slender; tarsus covered
anteriorly with a few longish scutella, acute behind ; toes free, scutellate
above, the lateral ones nearly equal; claws slender, compressed, acute,
slightly arched, that of the hind toe elongated.
Plumage soft and blended, slightly glossed. Wings shortish, curved,
rounded, the first and second primaries longest, the third scarcely shorter :
the secondaries long, but less so than in the Henslow Bunting, which belongs
to the same group. Tail short, small, rounded, slightly emarginate,
of twelve narrow, tapering feathers.
Bill flesh-coloured beneath, dusky above. Iris dark brown. Feet
light flesh-coloured. The general colour of the upper parts is light
greyish-brown, mixed on the neck with ash-grey tints, the central parts
of the feathers brownish-black, the margins of those of the back bright
chestnut. The upper part of the head brownish-black, with a longitudinal
central line of brownish-white. Secondary coverts dusky, margined
with greyish -white; along the flexure of the wing the small feathers are
bright yellow, whence the name of the species. Quills wood-brown, margined
with pale yellowish-brown. Tail-feathers of the same colour, the
outermost much paler. The under parts pale yellowish-grey, the breast
of a richer tint, being of a light yellowish-brown, its sides anteriorly spotted
with brownish-black.
Length 4{£ inches, extent of wings 8; bill along the ridge S . , along
the edge £ ; tarsus f, middle toe a little more than 2, hind toe jS.