NESTING HABITS OF THICK-BILLED SPARROWS. 
BY HARRY R. TAYLOR. 
At Blue Cajion, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, early in June, 
1891, I found the thick-billed sparrow. ( Passerella iliaca unalasch- 
_ censis) quite common. They were especially numerous on a low, 
brushy slope grown with young fir and pine trees, just above the 
railroad station. 
The weather in the mountains had been very variable, marked at 
this place by late rains, which seemed to me to account for a striking 
diversity in the time of nesting of many pairs of different species— 
numerous nests containing far advanced young, while others of the 
same kind were in process of building. 
The thick-bills were found to be very tame, some of them occa- 
sionally alighting on the veranda of the hotel. They were constant 
in song during the nesting season, and their pleasing notes seemed to 
be the most characteristic ones of that mountain region. I have 
listened to them singing cheerily at dusk, during a shower of rain. 
On June 12 I saw a young bird trying to fly, and two days later J 
discovered a nest containing three young; it was about two anda 
half feet above ground in a low pine tree, compactly built of shreds 
of bark and lined with dry grass stems. Another nest found 
June 18 also contained three young. It was built on a horizontal 
limb in a low growth of willows, somewhat over two feet from the 
ground, and was compactly constructed of dry twigs, with small 
shreds of bark, the innermost layer being of fine grass stems. The 
parent bird flew excitedly about near me, and then trailed in the 
grass to entice me from her nest. ae 
The thick-billed sparrow has a habit of frequenting some favorite 
spot, as the top of a bush ora telegraph wire, where it sings its 
cheerful song untiringly, doubtless near where its mate broods 
patiently on the nest. 
On the rst of July I found three fresh eggs in a nest built near 
the ground on a mass of thorny vines beneath a clump of fir trees. 
I took another nest of this species with two eggs, which was all 
that would have been laid as I waited several days for the full com- 
plement. This particular bird must have had its own peculiar no- 
tions of the hygienic necessities of a household, for it built its nest 
among some low weeds and vines in a pretty spot right over the 
edge of a rippling stream. 
