148 



Bird - Lore 



The exact breeding range of this bird is as yet unknown, but it is found in 

 the salt_ marshes of the coast of California from Santa Barbara southward. 

 The St. Lucas Sparrow {P. r. guttatus), a smaller, darker form, breeds on 

 Abreojos Point, Lower California, and winters about San Jose del Cabo; w^hile 

 the San Benito Sparrow {P. r. sanctorum), a smaller and grayer form, is 

 restricted to San Benito Island. 



Ipswich Sparrow (Fig. 5). The Ipswich Sparrow is apparently an island 

 offshoot of the Savannah Sparrow, which, under the influences of environ- 

 ments and isolation on Sable Island, N. S. (where alone it is known to nest), 

 has become larger and paler. Its molts and seasonal variations in plumage 

 agree with those of the Savannah Sparrow, and, as in that bird, the yellow 

 line over the eye is not acquired until the first prenuptial (spring) molt, 

 w'hich occurs in March. The figure of the bird in winter plumage (Fig. 5), 

 by one of those variations from proof which evidently cannot be foreseen or 

 prevented, is by no means gray enough. 



SEA-BIRDS FOLLOWING A WHALE 

 Large flocks of Sea-birds are frequently to be found hovering over the surface when a whale is near, 

 feeding upon the minute crustaceans brought to the top of the water by the movements of the great 

 animal. (See Bird-Lore, December, 1908, p. 261.) Photographed by Roy C. Andrews, Japan, 1910. 



