382 FRINGILLID 2. 
grasses with a lining of softer material. The eggs are five or six in number and vary 
considerably ; in some the ground colour is greenish white with blotches of various 
shades of brown, red, and purple; these blotches are more numerous about the larger end, 
where they form a ring; in others the spots are so numerous as to hide the ground 
colour. 
2. Passerculus rostratus. 
Emberiza rostrata, Cassin, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1852, p- 184°. . 
Ammodromus rostratus, Cassin, Ill. B. Calif. & Texas, p- 226, t. 38°. 
Passerculus rostratus, Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 542°; Ridgw. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. 
v. p.537*; Belding, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 843°. 
Supra griseo-fuscus fere unicolor, striis obscuris fere absconditis ; capite summo vix striato, alis et cauda fusco- 
nigris rufescente fusco limbatis; superciliis sordide albis, stria rictali fusca; subtus albidus, gutture, 
pectore et hypochondriis guttulatis ; rostro robusto corneo, mandibula pallida, pedibus corylinis. Long. 
tota 4'8, ale 2°7, caudee 2-0, rostri a rictu 0°55, tarsi 0°85. (Descr. maris ex Guaymas, Mexico. Smiths. 
Inst. no. 89910.) 
2 mari omnino similis. 
Hab. Norvu America, coast of California 12 to Cape S. Lucas? 4.—Mzxico, Guaymas 
(Belding *). 
This species can readily be separated from P. sandwichensis by its very stout bill, 
more arched culmen, the absence of a vertical median stripe, the obsolete streaks of the. 
back, which is nearly of a uniform colour, and the white superciliary streak with ‘no 
yellow in the anterior portion. 
P. rostratus appears to be restricted in its range to the coast of California and the 
shores of the Gulf of that name, and it is included in our Fauna from specimens having 
been obtained by Mr. L. Belding at Guaymas®. It was first discovered by Dr. Heer- 
mann near San Diego, on the coast of California !, where it frequented the sedge-grass 
near the sea-beach, feeding on seeds, &c., thrown up by the waves. Other observers 
have noticed it in similar situations. Of its breeding-habits nothing has been recorded 
so far as we know. Mr. Ridgway has carefully tabulated the measurements of a series 
of specimens of P. rostratus from Lower California, with a view to ascertain the status 
of the allied forms P. guttatus and P. sanctorum; the result shows that both of these 
birds are probably inseparable from P. rostratus 4. 
POCECETES. 
Poocetes, Baird, Birds N. Am. p. 447 (1858) ; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. Birds, i. p. 544. 
Poecetes, Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 864. 
This genus is very closely allied to Passerculus, from which it differs in the wings 
being longer in proportion to the tail, the primaries considerably exceeding the secon- 
daries in length. The claw of the hind toe is rather shorter than in Passerculus, the 
