138 



THE NUTTALL SPARROW. 



a friend but sliould certainly ridicule in 

 a stranger. We are Inniililed in view of 

 the \ocal limitations of this bird when 

 we recall that the V(jice oi the White- 

 crowned Sparrow (Z. Icucuf^hrysJ , of 

 which ours is a local race, is noted for 

 its sweet, pure quality. Surely our bird 

 has caught a bad cold. 



In selecting a nesting site, the Nuttall 

 displays a marked difference of taste 

 from the Rusty Song Sparrow,- in that 

 it selects a drv situation. The first nest, 

 prepared during the third week in April, 

 is almost invariably built upon the 

 ground. A slight hollow^ is scratched at 

 the base of a bush or sapling, and a 

 rather pretentious structure of bark strips, 

 dried grasses and rootlets is reared, with 

 a lining of fine grass and horse-hair. A 

 nest found on Flat-top was set in high 

 grass at the foot of a tiny oak sapling, 

 and was composed externally of dried 

 yarrow leaves with a few coarse grasses ; 

 internally of fine coiled grass of a very 

 light color, supplemented by four or five 

 white gull feathers. The eggs, four or 

 five in number, are of a handsome light 

 green shade, and are hea\-ily dotted, spotted, or blotched 

 with reddish brown. 



A second set is prepared a month or so later than the first, and occa- 

 siiinally a third. Second nests are Imilt, as likely as not, in bushes or trees ; 

 and Mr. Bowles has taken them as high as twenty-five feet from the ground, 

 "^'iiung birds lack the parti-colored head-stripes of the adult, altho the 

 pattern is sketched in browns ; and they are best identified by the unfailing- 

 solicitude of the parents, which attends their every movement. They are 

 rather bumptious little creatures for all ; a company of them romping about 

 a pasture fence brings a wholesome recollection of school-boy days, and there 

 are girls among them, too, for my! how they giggle! 



Tahen in Seattle. Flioto by the Autt-iOy 



FEMALE i\UTT.\LL SPARROW. 



green or ijluish 



