142 THE RUSTY SONG SPARROW. 



favorite building site is amid the debris of last _vear"s tlood water, caught 

 in the willow clumps of creek or lagoon. With high Ijoots one may wade 

 the bed of a brushy creek near Yakima and count certainly on Hnding a 

 Merrill S<->ng Sparrow's nest every five or ten rods. 



No. 57. 



RUSTY SONG SPARROW. 



A. O. U. No. 581 e. Melospiza melodia morphna Oberholser. 



Description. — .-idiilts: Somewhat like M. in. inontana but coloration much 

 more rufcscent, general color of upperparts rich rusty brown, ashy gray of M. in. 

 inontana represented by rusty olive and this reduced or (in some plumages) 

 almost wanting; black mesial streaks of scapulars, etc., much reduced, indistinct 

 or sometimes wanting: underparts heavily and broadly streaked with chestnut 

 usually without black shaft lines ; sides and flanks washed with olivaceous. 

 "Young, slightly rufescent bister brown above, the back streaked with blackish, 

 beneath dull whitish or very pale bufify grayish, the chest, sides and flanks more 

 or less tinged with bufify or pale fulvous and streaked with sooty brownish" 

 (Ridgway). Length about 6.40 (162.5); wing 2.60 (66); tail 2.56 (65); bill 

 .50 ( 12.7 ) ; tarsus .67 (17). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; rusty brown coloration; heavily spot- 

 ting of underparts distinctive save for the PassercUa iliaca group from which it 

 is further distinguished by smaller size and varied head markings. 



Nesting. — Nest: As in preceding. Eggs: usually 4, averaging darker in 

 coloration and larger than in M. in. mcrriUi. Av. size, .87 x .63 (22.1x16). 

 Season: second week in April to July; two or three broods. 



General Range. — "Breeding from extreme southern portion of Alaska 

 through British Columbia (including Vancouver Island) to western Oregon 

 (north of Rogue River Mountains) ; in winter, south to southern California (Fort 

 Tejon, etc.)"' (Ridgway). 



Range in Washington. — Common resident west of the Cascades; f(iund 

 chieflv in vicinity of water. 



Authorities. — ? Audubon, Orn. Biog. \. 1839, 22. M. rufina. Baird, Rep. 

 Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 481. (T). CSjS. L'. Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E. 



Specimens.— U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. E. 



IF ONE were to write a book about the blessings of common things, 

 an early chapter must needs be devoted to the Song Sparrow. How blessed 

 a thing it is that we do not all of tis have to go to greenhouses for our 

 flowers, nor to foreign shores for birds. Why, there is more lavish love- 

 liness in a dandelion than there is in an imported orchid; and I fancy we 

 should tire of the Nightingale, if we had to exchange for him our sweet 

 poet of common day, the Song Sparrow. 



