Its nesting habits are like those of the preceding and the eggs are indistinguishable.
540b. OREGON VESPER SPARROW. _Poœcetes gramineus affinis._
A browner variety found on the coast of Oregon and northern California.
Its nesting habits are like those of the eastern bird and the eggs similar but averaging a trifle smaller.
* * * ENGLISH SPARROW. _Passer domesticus._
These birds, which were imported from Europe, have increased so rapidly that they have overrun the cities and villages of the country and are doing inestimable damage both by driving out native insect eating birds and by their own destructiveness. They nest in all sorts of places but preferably behind blinds, where their unsightly masses of straw protrude from between the slats, and their droppings besmirch the buildings below; they breed at all seasons of the year, eggs having often been found in January, with several feet of snow on the ground and the mercury below zero. The eggs number from four to eight in a set and from four to eight sets a season; the eggs are whitish, spotted and blotched with shades of gray and black. Size .88 × .60.
[Illustration 337: Whitish.] [Illustration: McCown's Longspur.] [Illustration: White.] [Illustration: Vesper Sparrow.] [Illustration: right hand margin.]
[Illustration 338: A. R. Spaid. NEST AND EGGS OF VESPER SPARROW.]
541. IPSWICH SPARROW. _Passerculus princeps._
Range.--Breeds on Sable Island, off Nova Scotia; winters on coast of South Atlantic States. This a large and pale colored form of the common Savannah Sparrow. Its nesting habits are similar to those of the latter and the eggs are marked the same but average larger. Size .80 × .60.
542. ALEUTIAN SAVANNAH SPARROW. _Passerculus sandwichensis sandwichensis._
Range.--Breeds on the Alaskan coast; winters south to northern California.
A streaked Sparrow like the next but with the yellow superciliary line brighter and more extended. Its nesting habits are precisely like those of the next variety which is common and well known; the eggs are indistinguishable.
542a. SAVANNAH SPARROW. _Passerculus sandwichensis savanna._
Range.--North America east of the Plains, breeding from the Middle States north to Labrador and the Hudson Bay region.