540 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Ijlack stripes. The broad lateral stripes of the croM'n are deep olive or hair- 

 brown, with narrow, sharply defined, intense black streaks, instead of pale 

 grayish as in alaudinus (spring dress), or light brown as in savanna (spring), 

 with broader, less deep, black streaks. 



Habits. The Shore Sparrow of California is said to be, to a remarkable 

 degree, the peculiar marsh species of the Pacific coast of that State. Dr. 

 Cooper states that he very rarely met with these birds out of the salt marshes, 

 where they lie so close and run so stealthily among the weeds that they are 

 fiuslied with ditficnlty. They rise only to fly a few rods, and drop again 

 into their covert. They are not at all gregarious, except when migrating, and 

 are found singly or by pairs. They are abundant about San Francisco in the 

 winter, though Dr. Cooper is not sure that any are found so far south in the 

 summer. Near San Diego, in February, they had already begun to utter 

 their short and pleasant song, as they perched on the toj) of some tall weed. 

 Dr. Cooper observed them in that neighborhood into April, but did not 

 succeed in finding any of their nests, nor was he ever able to meet with this 

 species at San Pedro in summer. 



Dr. Coues speaks of (Ibis, 1866, p. 268) finding three species of the diffi- 

 cult group of FassercuH, and all of them very abundant, in Southern Califor- 

 nia in November. These were F. rostratus, P. alaudinus, and P. anthinus. 

 The anthinus seemed confined to the moist salt grass and sedgy weeds of the 

 sea-shore itself It was flushed with great difficulty, and then its flight was 

 very rapid and irregular. It would alight again almost immediately, and run 

 with great celerity among the roots of the thick grasses, and was therefore 

 exceedingly difficult to procure. P. alaudinv.s was common two or three 

 miles away from the coast, but Dr. Coues did not find one mixing with 

 P. anthinus. It was a brush and weed, rather than a grass, species, associating 

 with Anthus ludovicianus and Zonotrichia coronata. 



Passerculus princeps, Maynaed. 



IPSWICH SPARROW. 



Centronyx hairdi, Maynaed, Naturalist's Guide, 1870, 117, frontispiece (Ipswicli, Mass.). 

 Passerculus pinnceps, Maynahd, American Naturalist, 1872. 



Sp. Char. Bill small, exactly the same in form and size as that of Centronyx hairdi; 

 but proportionally smaller ; tertials scarcely exceeding the secondaries ; tail emarginate, 

 the feathers acute, the intermedin attenuated termmally. Outstretched feet reaching 

 about half-way to the end of the tail. In color almost exactly like P. rostratus, but dif- 

 ferent in markings. Above light ashy, the dorsal feathers light sandy-brown centrally, 

 producing an obsoletely spotted appearance ; shafts of dorsal feathers black. Outer sur- 

 face of the wings pale sandy-brown, the feathers darker centrally ; tertials with their 

 outer webs whitish, and with a conspicuous black central area. Crown becoming darker 

 brown anteriorly, where it is divided by a rather indistinct line of ochraceous-white ; an 

 indistinct superciliary stripe, and a very conspicuous maxillary stripe of the same; the 

 latter bordered above, from the rictus to the end of the auriculars, by a narrow stripe of 



