294 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



in January, 1885, a few birds, usually in pairs, were found 

 near the settlement. At the door of one of the huts, hang- 

 ing in a cage, were several of this species, one of which, 

 an adult male, had assumed the yellow plumage which others 

 of this genus take on when confined. 



Soon after settling on the top of the island in December, 

 1885, the " Gorrions " began to collect about the camp, 

 making the mornings joyous with their song. 



By our refraining from discharging fire-arms in the im- 

 mediate vicinity of the camp, they soon became quite tame, 

 hopping about camp during the day, and roosting at night iii 

 the thickest cypress, or, during a storm, under the eaves of 

 the palm-thatched huts. On the 24th of January I counted 

 fourteen within a stone's throw of camp, and attracted by 

 the bread crumbs and other food which I threw out for 

 them, their numbers daily increased until on the 1st of 

 February the census of birds in camp, including both sexes, 

 showed a total of twenty-two. Two weeks later they sud- 

 denly departed, and were to be found only in paii-s about 

 the cypress groves, save in the center of the pine belt, 

 where the blossoms and seeds of the " chick-weed " some- 

 times attracted a flock of half a dozen, who busied them- 

 selves feasting upon this tender food. Nothing, either in 

 their habits or song, differed from C. frontalis rhodocolpus. 



They are easily entrapped under a box, and it was in this 

 way that the Mexican women at the settlement succeeded in 

 catching, during my stay, as many as two or three dozen, 

 which they ate. 



The dissection of specimens showed the food to consist 

 chiefly of seeds from the cypress tree, mingled with green 

 seeds of " chick-weed." Some of those taken near camp 

 had their crops well filled with bits of tallow picked from 

 the body of a goat which had been dressed and hung under 

 a tree. 



Two nests were found in cypress trees nearly completed 

 by February 22. A i:est and set of five fresh eggs (No. 792, 



