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.] Page 336 [Illustration 338: A. R. Spaid. NEST AND EGGS OF VESPER SPARROW.] Page 337 541. 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. Similar to the last but with the superciliary line paler and the yellow reduced to a spot on the lores. Their nests are hollows in the ground, lined with grasses and generally concealed by tufts of grass or weeds. Their three to five eggs vary greatly in markings from finely and evenly dotted all over to very heavily blotched, the ground color being grayish white. Size .75 × .55 542b. WESTERN SAVANNAH SPARROW. _Passerculus sandwichensis alaudinus._ Range.--Western North America from Alaska to Mexico. A slightly paler form whose nesting habits and eggs do not differ from those of the last. 542c. BRYANT'S SPARROW. _Passerculus sandwichensis bryanti._ Range.--Salt marshes of California from San Francisco Bay south to Mexico. Slightly darker and brighter than the eastern Savannah Sparrow and with a more slender bill. The eggs are not different from many specimens of savanna; they are light greenish white heavily blotched with various shades of brown and lavender. Size .75 × .55. 543. Belding's Sparrow. _Passerculus beldingi._