FRINGILLID^ — THE FINCHES. 



57 



nest of the two species, he adds, were also so much alike in manner of con- 

 struction and situation, and the eggs so similar, that it required a careful 

 observation to identify a nest when one was found. 



The eggs from one nest of the Passerella schistacea measure .90 by .70 of 

 an inch, have a ground of a light mountain-green, and are profusely spotted 

 with blotches of a rufous-brown, generally diffused over the entire egg. 



Another nest of this species, obtained in Parley's Park, in the Wahsatch 

 Mountains, by Mr. Eidgway, June 23, 1869, was built in a clump of willows, 

 about two feet from the ground. The nest is two inches in height, two and 

 a half in diameter, cavity one and a half deep, with a diameter of two. It 

 is composed externally of coarse decayed water-grass, is lined with fine hair 

 and finer material like the outside. The eggs, four in number, are .80 by .67 

 of an inch, of a very rounded oval shape, the ground-color of a pale green, 

 blotched and marked chiefly at the larger end with brown spots of a wine- 

 colored hue. 



Passerella townsendi, var. megarhynclms, Baird. 



THICK-BILLED SPARKOW. 



Passerella schistacea, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, p. 490 (in part ; Ft. Tejon specimens). 

 Passerella megarhynchus, Baikd, Birds N. Am. 1858, p. 925 (Appendix). — Cooper, 

 Orn. Cal. I, 222. Passerella schistacea, var. megarhynchus, Eidgway, Kept. Geol. 

 Expl. 40th Par. 



but bill 



Sp. Char. Similar to var. schistacea in colors, size, and general proportions : 

 enormously thick, its depth being very much 

 greater than the distance from nostril to tip, 

 instead of much less ; color of lower mandible 

 rosy milk-white, instead of maize-yellow. Bill, 

 .35 from nostril, .47 deep ; wing, 3.30 ; tail, 3.50 ; 

 tarsus, .83 ; middle toe without claw, .63 ; hind 

 claw, 50. 



Hab. Sierra Nevada, from Fort Tejon north 

 to 40°- latitude (Carson City, Nevada, breeding, 

 Ridgway). 



This very remarkable variety of P. toivnsendi is quite local in its distribu- 

 tion, having been observed only in the Sierra Nevada region, as above 

 indicated. The first specimens were brought from Fort Tejon by Mr. J. 

 Xantus, but at what season they were found there is not indicated on the 

 labels. Recently, specimens were procured by Mr. Ridgway at Carson City, 

 Nev., in April, they having arrived there about the 20th of April, fre- 

 quenting the ravines of the Sierra near the snow. At the same place the 

 var. schistacea was found earlier in the spring, but among the willows along 

 the streams in the valleys, and not met with in the mountains ; and all the 

 individuals had passed northward before those of megarhynchus arrived. 



