840 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



feet up. All are remarkably well hidden, and rarely does one ever 

 flush a sitting bird from the nest. 



"The usual clutch is 4 eggs, but many lay only 3, and often but 2 

 eggs complete the set. No sets of 5 have ever been reported. Many 

 of the sets I collected in the Elfers region differed from those of all 

 the other forms in being more finely and densely speckled with 

 reddish-brown markings. However, Charles G. Doe wrote me in 

 1942 that his collection of about 150 sets from the Cedar Keys area 

 'show a wide variation from almost spotless to very dark, and some 

 that cannot be told from song sparrow eggs!' " 



Of the Wakulla seaside Nicholson writes: "My scant experiences 

 with these sparrows during the nesting season found them exceedingly 

 shy. They remained hidden even when singing in the dense, needle- 

 like Juncus. On Apr. 10, 1959, I collected a set of 3 eggs incubated 

 four or five days, from a dense patch of Juncus at Wakulla Beach. 

 The next day I collected another set of 3 fresh eggs and a third of 2 

 fresh eggs. These, so far as I know, are the only eggs of this race in 

 collections. They are similar in both size and shape and markings 

 to those of the other races." 



Howell (1932) says of the food of peninsulae: "Five stomachs of 

 birds of this race, examined in the Biological Survey, indicated food 

 preferences similar to those of the east-coast birds; spiders, grass- 

 hoppers, and beetles formed the bulk of the contents, with some 

 bivalves and gastropods." Of juncicola he writes: "The stomachs 

 of sbc birds of this race examined contained practically the same 

 items in the food as were found in the food of the other subspecies; 

 small crabs, however, were taken in greater quantities, amounting 

 in some cases to more than half of the total food contents." 



Distribution 



Range. — Scott's seaside sparrow is resident in salt marshes of 

 the west coast of Florida from Pepperfish Keys to Old Tampa Bay. 

 The Wakulla seaside sparrow is resident in coastal marshes of the 

 northern Gulf coast of Florida from Escambia Bay to southern 

 Taylor County. 



Egg dates.- — Scott's, Florida : 43 records, April 5 to July 7 ; 24 

 records, April 12 to May 10. 



Wakulla, Florida: 4 records. May 3 to June 6. 



