Passerculus sandwichensis
Order Passeriformes
Family Passerellidae
Adult.— Upper parts brown, streaked with blackish; a yellow line over each eye, and a narrow white stripe through the centre of the crown; breast and sides rather narrowly streaked; the spot in the centre of the breast and on the sides of the throat not so prominent as in the Song Sparrow; tail rather short; legs and feet pale pink.
Immature.— No yellow over eye.
Nest, on the ground.
Eggs, bluish-white, thickly marked with reddish-brown.
The Savannah Sparrow is a common summer resident of the upland meadows of Berkshire County, Mass., and of northern New England and New York. It also breeds commonly on the edges of extensive salt meadows along the New England coast, north of Long Island Sound, and on the wide alluvial meadows of certain rivers, such as the Concord and the Connecticut. Through southern New England and the lower Hudson Valley it occurs chiefly as a migrant, common in April and early May, and again in September and October. It should then be looked for in grassy fields, particularly near the sea-shore, or along the larger streams.
The Savannah Sparrow, unlike most migrants, rarely sings during migration. On its breeding-ground the song continues through July. The song is unlike those of the Vesper Sparrow and the Song Sparrow, but might be confused with that of the Grasshopper Sparrow. It is uttered from a rock or a low post, and consists of two or three preliminary chips, followed by two long insect-like trills, the second in a little lower key than the first, tsip, tsip, tsip, tseeeeeeeee tsee-ee-ee-ee. The Grasshopper Sparrow’s song is drier, less musical, and the trill is all on one note. When the birds have young about, they are very watchful, and observe an intruder by the hour, continually uttering a sharp tsup. When two birds quarrel, they utter a harsh bsss. The appearance of the Savannah Sparrow’s head, as the bird faces one, should distinguish it from the Song Sparrow and the Vesper Sparrow; the white median line and the yellow lines over the eyes give the head a striped appearance, quite distinct from that of the other two species. The shortness of its tail, too, is apparent when it flies; after a short nervous flight it drops into the grass, where it runs along or squats motionless.
Ipswhich Subspecies
Passerculus sandwichensis princeps
Adult in spring.— Spot before the eye yellow; line over eye white; upper parts pale gray, streaked on the head with black, on the back with brown; throat and belly white; breast and sides streaked with brown; legs and feet pale pink.
Adult in winter.— Similar, but without the yellow before the eye.
The Ipswich Sparrow is a migrant and winter visitant along the sea-coast of New England and New York, commoner during the migration than in winter. It arrives in November and stays till the first week of April. At all seasons it is confined to extensive stretches of beach-grass, such as occur at Ipswich, Mass., on Cape Cod, and on Long Island; occasionally it comes down to the beach and feeds there with Shore Larks and Snow Buntings. One can flush it by walking through the beach-grass; after a hurried flight it dives down again into the grass, and either crouches under a tuft of grass, or runs low from one bit of cover to the next. Its note is a faint tsip.
Its general aspect is that of a large, pale Savannah Sparrow, and care must be taken to distinguish it from this species, which is often abundant in the beach-grass.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)
While it was considered its own species back in Hoffmann’s times, recent DNA analysis has shown that the Ipswich Sparrow is really a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow.