diff --git a/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl b/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
index cb69e77105e3f..b86ae8a81352d 100644
--- a/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
+++ b/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ function findn{Tv,Ti}(S::SparseMatrixCSC{Tv,Ti})
             J[count] = col
             count += 1
         else
-            println("warning: sparse matrix contains explicit stored zeros")
+            warn("sparse matrix contains explicit stored zeros")
         end
     end
 
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ function findnz{Tv,Ti}(S::SparseMatrixCSC{Tv,Ti})
             V[count] = S.nzval[k]
             count += 1
         else
-            println("warning: sparse matrix contains explicit stored zeros")
+            warn("sparse matrix contains explicit stored zeros")
         end
     end