FRINGILLID.E— THE FINCHES. 53 



Fort Anderson. Afterwards he observed several other nests on the ground, 

 all of which were similar to the last, and it is by no means impossible 

 that in certain instances these birds may ha\e occupied old nests of the 

 T. alicioe, and used them for purposes of incubation. Eichardson states that 

 its nests are constructed in a low bush, and are made of dry grass, hair, and 

 feathers. He states tliat tiie eggs are five in number, of a pale mountain- 

 green tint, and marbled with irregular spots of brown. 



Mr. Audubon, who foiuid several of the nests of this bird in Labrador, 

 near the coast, describes them as large for the size of the bird, and as usually 

 placed on the ground among moss or tall grass near the stem of a creeping 

 fir, the branches of which usually conceal it from view. Its exterior is 

 loosely formed of dry grasses and moss, with a carefully disposed inner layer 

 of fine grasses, circularly arranged. The linmg consists of very delicate 

 fibrous roots, with feathers of different kinds of water-fowl. In one instance 

 he noted the down of the eider-duck. He found their eggs from the middle 

 of June to the oth of July. When their nest was approached, the female 

 affected lameness, and employed all the usual arts to decoy the intruder 

 away. They raised but one brood in a season, and about the first of Septem- 

 ber left Labrador for the south in small flocks, made up of members of one 

 family. 



Their eggs measure from .92 to an inch in length, and .70 in breadth. 

 They are oblong in shape. Their ground-color is a light bluish-white, 

 thickly spotted with a rusty-brown, often so fuUy as to conceal the 

 ground. 



Passerella townsendi, Xutt.vll. 



TOWNSEND'S SPAREOW. 



1 Emberiza unalaschke.nsis, Gmel. H, 1788, hi h {ha.&tA on Aonalaschka Buntimj, L.4.TH. H, 

 202, 48; Uimlaschka B., Pe.vnant, .52). Passerella u. FisscH, Abh. Nat. HI, 1872, 

 53 (.Alaska). Fringilla toumscndi, AuD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 236, pi. ccccxxiv, f. 7. — 

 Ib. Syn. 1839. — Ib. Birds Am. HI, 1841, 43, pi. clx.txvii. Fringilla {Passerella) 

 townsendi, NuTT. Man. I, (2cl ed.,) 1840, 533. Passerella townsendi, Bon. Conspectus, 

 1850, 477. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 489. — Cooper & Sucklet, 204. — Dall 

 & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 285. Fringilla meruloides, Vig. Zoijl. Blossom 

 (Monterey, Cal.), 1839, 19. ? Emberisa (Zonotrichia) rufina, KlTTl.iTZ, Deukw. 1858, 

 200. (He compares it with P. iliaca, but says it is darker. Sitka.) 



Sp. Char. Above very dark olive-brown, with a tince of nifoiis, the color continuous 

 and uniform throughout, without any trace of blotches or spots; the upper tail-coverts 

 and outer edges of the wing and tail feather.s rather lighter and brighter. The under parts 

 white, but thickly covered with approximating triangular blotches colored like the back, 

 sparsest on the middle of the body and on the throat; the spots on the belly smaller. 

 Side almost continuously like the back; tibiije and under tail-coverts similar, the latter 

 edged with paler. Axillars brown ; paler on edges. Claws all very large and long ; the 

 hinder claw longer than its toe. First and sixth quills about equal. Length, about 7 

 inches; wing, about 3.00. 



