NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 323 



The nest is described as being made of grasses, moss, and vegetable 

 fibres compactly woven together. The eggs, three to five in number, 

 are described as of a greenish or dull brownish-white, spotted and 

 blotched with reddish-brown; size .9OX.66. 



585. Passerella iliaca megarhyncha (BAIRD) [235^.] 



Thick-billed Sparrow. 



Hab. Mountain ranges of California and Oregon, including eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. 



This species is confined to the restricted area of the mountainous 

 regions of California and Oregon. Its habits are much the same as 

 those of P. unalaschcensis, inhabiting the shrubbery of the mountain 

 ravines, where it breeds. It is said to be an exquisite songster, its 

 song resembling in richness and volume that of the Louisiana Water- 

 Thrush. The Thick-billed Sparrow has been found breeding in several 

 places in California and Southeastern Oregon. Mr. L. Belding found 

 it nesting in Calaveras county, California, in June. The nest is said 

 to be built just above the ground, and sometimes at a height of five 

 feet, and always in bushes amongst thickets. The eggs are like those 

 of P. unalaschcensis or those of schistacea, and average .86 x .64. 



585^. Passerella iliaca scMstacea (BAIRD) [23 5^.] J 



Slate-colored Sparrow. 



Hab. Rocky Mountain region, west across the Great Basin into California and Oregon; east in 

 winter to the Great Plains (Kansas.) 



The Slate-colored Sparrow was met with by Prof. Ridgway in Par- 

 ley's Park among the Wahsatch Mountains, nesting plentifully in the 

 willows and other shrubbery along the streams in the month of June. 

 It was always found in company with the Mountain Song Sparrow, 

 M. f. montana, which, in song, it greatly resembles. The nests of the 

 two species were also much alike in manner of construction and situa- 

 tion and the eggs so similar that it required careful observation to 

 identify a nest when one was found. 



A set containing three eggs of this species is in Mr. Norris' 

 cabinet which was collected by Captain Charles E. Bendire, at Camp 

 Harney, Oregon, on June 21, 1875. The nest was in a rose thicket, 

 two and a half feet from the ground, close to Rattlesnake Creek. The 

 eggs are of a pale bluish-green, heavily spotted with burnt umber, 

 and measure .83 x .62, .80 x .62, .87 x .63 respectively. 



586. Embernagra rufivirgata LAWR. [236.] 



Texas Sparrow. 



Hab. Valley of the Lower Rio Grande in Texas and southward. 



Dr. Merrill and Mr. Sennett both note this species as a common 

 resident on the Lower Rio Grande, in Texas, where it frequents the 

 thickets, brush-fences and low shrubbery. Dr. Merrill says : "I have 



