276 BULLETIN OF THE 



itself. " When with difficulty it was flushed, its flight was," he remarks, 

 " very rapid and irregular ; and it would alight again almost immediately, 

 and run with great celerity among the roots of the thick grasses. It was 

 then exceedingly difficult to procure." * All of which is quite true of 

 P. savanna when frequenting the salt marshes, which form its most favor- 

 ite resort in Massachusetts. " I', alaudinus" he says, "was common two 

 or three miles away from the coast, but on the sea-shore itself I never 

 found one mixing with P. ant/anus ; it is a bush-and-weed rather than 

 a grass species." P. saccuuia also frequents similar localities. Mr. 

 Dall, under P. antJiinus, has also accurately indicated the habits of the 

 eastern Passerculus. Under P. savanna, however, he mentions a fact 

 in respect to the breeding habits of this species I have never before seen 

 mentioned as characterizing any of the Passerculi, namely, its nesting in 

 bushes. I have met with many nests of the eastern savanna sparrow, and 

 have always found them placed on the ground, usually in a tuft of grass. 



To recur again to the series in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 I may add that while some of the Ipswich specimens, taken late in June, 

 have a decidedly yellow superciliary stripe, none have it so bright as it is 

 usually in spring specimens ; in a considerable proportion it is very pale, 

 and in Nos. 4700, 10GC8, etc., it is grayish-white, with no perceptible trace 

 of yellow. No. 5099, and some others, have the spots on the breast and 

 sides very narrow, occupying but a small share of the surface ; on the 

 other hand, in No. 5088, as also in several others of the series, the spots 

 are so broad as to occupy more space than the enclosing white portion. 

 In other specimens, taken at a different season of the year, the "rufous 

 tinge" surrounding the spots referred to in the above-quoted description 

 of P. anthinus is very marked. There is likewise great difference in the 

 color of the upper surface, in different specimens. In some the black cen- 

 tral spots of the interscapularies are so broad as to give to the dorsal aspect 

 a very dark tint; in others, taken the same day at the same locality, they 

 are so restricted that the general aspect of this surface is gray. The bills 

 of the different specimens vary as much in length and robustness as they 

 are represented to do in the two extremes in this respect in the western 

 bird. Some of the long-billed ones have the bill slender: others have it 

 thick and stout. Occasionally one has the upper mandible projecting 

 considerably beyond the lower, but only in cases where it is abnormally 

 developed. A specimen from Fort Bridger, Utah (No. 11115 of the 

 Smithsonian Catalogue), in the Museum, labelled Passerculus alaudinus 

 at the Smithsonian Institution, is of this character, the upper mandible 

 being very much abnormally developed and decurved, and projecting 

 much beyond the lower. 



* Ibis, July, 1S66, 268. 



