140 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



what it is like when in nuptial plumage. It is at pres6nt represented by only 

 three or four specimens, all of which were taken in autumn or winter, while 

 all the examples oi halophilus that have been thus far examined are adults in 

 breeding condition. On comparing nine specimens of the latter from Abreojos 

 Point (in the National Museum Collection) with the type of guttatus, and with 

 two closely similar birds taken at the same locality (San Jos6 del Cabo) by ]\Ir. 

 Frazar, I fail to verify the differences in respect to size which are claimed to 

 exist between the two forms. Indeed, two of the examples of halophilus have 

 the wing of almost exactly the same length as that of the type of guttahis, while 

 several of the former agree perfectly with the latter in respect to the size and 

 shape of the bill. The color differences are obvious enough, but they are not 

 greater than, nor dissimilar to, those which distinguish autumnal young of 

 many of our Sparrows from adults of the same species killed at the height of 

 the breeding season. In short, while it is not wholly impossible that Jialophilus 

 may eventually prove to be a distinct race, the present indications are that this 

 name has been based merely on fully mature, breeding specimens of guttatus, 

 and that the type of the latter, with the few known birds which resemlde it 

 closely, are merely exceptionally small, slender-billed young in their first 

 winter plumage. 



The type specimen was taken by Mr. Xantus in December, 1859, at San 

 Jose del Cabo, where Mr. Frazar obtained two similar examples in 1887, — 

 one on October 3, the other on November 9. So far as we know, the bird is 

 a winter visitor only to the Cape Region, and it evidently does not occur there 

 in anything like so large numbers as A. rostratus or even A. r. sanctorum. 

 Mr. Bryant " secured a single male on Santa Margarita Island, January 21, 

 1888, which Mr. Ridgway says is most like the type specimen of any he has 

 seen." 



In April and June, 1897, Mr. R. C. McGregor found what, as I have already 

 stated, I consider to be the St. Lucas Sparrow breeding at Abreojos Point, 

 Lower California, " in a salt marsh about five miles long by half a mile wide . . . 

 surrounded by ocean on one side and hot desert on the others," and intersected 

 by tidal creeks " which empty into a salt lake or pond lagoon." During his 

 first visit, on April 19, the birds were abundant, and most of them were still 

 " in perfect spring plumage." One of the females was flushed from her nest, 

 which was placed " sixteen inches from the ground, in a tall bunch of glass- 

 wort, the top of which was bent over and in to form a covering," beneath which 

 the bird could enter " from one side only." This nest was " larger than that of 

 [the] San Benito Island species, made of salt grass and lined with fine shrefis 

 of grass and a few feathers of Larus." The three eggs, which it contained, were 

 bluish white, with blotches of raw umber and spots of lilac. They measured 

 respectively : .79 X -58, .80 X .58, and .78 X 58. 



On June 17, the occasion of Mr. McGregor's second visit to Abreojos Point, 

 the St. Lucas Sparrows were apparently laying their second clutches, for al- 

 though no nests were found, " eggs on which the shell was formed " were 

 taken from the oviducts of several of the females. 



