1210 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paet 2 



it disappears readily into the brush. J. S. Appleton (1911), finding 

 hreweri to be a rather common resident of the Simi Valley, Ventura 

 County, Calif., writes: "The birds are very shy, sneaking from the 

 nest and running through the grass instead of flying; consequently 

 the nests are rather difficult to locate. All the nests that I have 

 found have been on a south slope, sparsely covered with sagebrush 

 and cactus, with a thicker growth of smaller plants and shrubs between. 

 The nests were in these smaller shrubs, generally not over a foot above 

 the ground." The nesting site is usually within the favored sagebrush 

 habitat and almost always within four feet of the ground. I have 

 found only one report of a nest actually on the ground, that by F. 

 Kenagy (1914) for a normally constructed nest in a slight depression 

 in an alfalfa field. 



John G. Tyler (1910) records it breeding in vineyards near Clovis, 

 Fresno County, CaHf. All the nests there were much alike in place- 

 ment and construction, being typically composed on the outside of 

 dry grass stems and a few grass blades and roots, and lined with 

 very small, dry brown rootlets and a few long horsehairs. The neat, 

 compact structures impressed Tyler as being almost exact miniatures 

 of nests of the California jay. 



The nesting of taverneri has been described in some detail by H. S. 

 Swarth (1930) in the Atlin region of northern British Columbia where, 

 except for habitat, the details could apply to hreweri as well. There, 

 above timberline at 4,500 feet altitude, and in a dwarf fir-bu'ch-willow 

 habitat, Swarth was forced to work patiently to discover the nest. 

 He writes : 



A cautious return later resulted in flushing my bird at close range from a nest 

 with four eggs. Even then, the bird arising not more than tlu-ee feet away and 

 directly in front, I had to make a careful search on hands and knees. The birch 

 was only partly leaved out, but the closely interlaced branches made a perfect 

 cover from above. The nest, its bottom a scant six inches from the ground, was 

 loosely placed among the supporting vegetation, not fastened to the twigs. When 

 the surrounding branches were cut away the nest was removed separately; it 

 could not be kept associated with the shrubbery in which it had been placed. 



The nest is constructed almost entirely of rather stiff dried grass stalks and 

 gray shreds, apparently from the fire-weed. The lining is of fine dried grass and a 

 few moose hairs. Average external diameter (excluding long, protruding stalks) 

 130 millimeters; inside diameter, about 50 mm.; inside depth, about 30 mm. 



Eggs. — ^Brewer's sparrow lays from three to five eggs, with three or 

 four being the usual number. They are ovate and slightly glossy. 

 The ground of "bluish glaucous" or "Etain blue" is speckled, spotted, 

 and blotched with such dark browns as "Brussels brown," "mummy 

 brown," "snuff brown," or "cinnamon brown" with occasional under- 

 markings of "pale neutral gray." They may be either very finely 

 speckled, or marked with a few blotches and scrawls. In most cases 



I 



