WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 217 



grass is scratched together and serves as a nursery. It 

 is always more or less damp, but this does not to any 

 "marked degree interfere with the hatching. When near 

 their nests these birds skulk through the rushes in the 

 same manner as a rail, straddling along with one foot on 

 one tule and the other on a second. In the shadow of 

 the rushes one might easily mistake them for little black 

 rails. After the four weeks of this constant brushing 

 through the rushes to and from the nest, both parents 

 present a decidedly threadbare appearance, and their 

 tails are often almost as stringy as a rat's. Incubation 

 lasts thirteen days, and the young remain in the nest 

 ten days longer. They are fed mostly upon insects 

 picked up in the damp grass or at the edge of the 

 water. 



543. BELDIXG MARSH SPARROW. — Passercn/ us 

 heldingi. 



Family : The Finches, Sparrows, etc. 



Length: 5.00-5.25. 



Adults: Upper parts olive-brown, with broad black streaks on back; 

 superciliary and median crown-stripe very indistinct or wanting ; fore- 

 part of sui>erciliary stripe greenish yellow ; sides of head and neck 

 darker ; under i)arts more thickly and heavily marked with black ; 

 under tail-coverts with concealed streaks. 



Yoimg : Similar to adults, but upper parts more bully ; superciliary 

 finely streaked and usually without yellow; under juirts less dis- 

 tinctly streaked. 



Geographical Diatribution : Salt marshes of Southern California south to 

 Lower California and Todos Santos Island. 



California Brcrding Range : On southeru coast marshes from Port Har- 

 ford to National City. 



Breeding Season : May. 



