AMPHISPIZA NBVADENSIS. 477 



see these birds at every few steps. They were exceedingly unsuspicious, 

 and very reluctant to take flight, if not pursued too persistently ; merely 

 keeping a few feet in advance, running swiftly on the ground, their tails 

 elevated at an angle of about 45°, but unexpanded, and keeping thus in 

 front for several rods; when too nearly approached, merely dodging in and 

 out among the low bushes, or concealing- themselves momentarily behind 

 a scraggly shrub. Should they be startled, even, they merely fly up, with 

 a chipping twitter, and after a short meandering flight for a few rods, again 

 alight and run out of sight. 



They began singing toward the last of February, and by the beginning 

 of April the first eggs were laid. During a walk through the sage-brush, 

 on the ninth of the latter month, several nests were found, the female in 

 nearly every instance betraying the position of the nest by remaining on 

 it until we had approached quite near. Often, by carefully watching the 

 ground a rod or two ahead, did we detect one of these birds steal slyly out 

 from beneath a scraggly, usually nearly prostrate, bush, and, with tail 

 elevated, run rapidly and silently away and soon disappear in the shrub- 

 bery. On such an occasion, a careful examination of the spot was almost 

 certain to reveal an artfully-concealed nest, either imbedded in the ground, 

 or, as was more rarely the case, resting among the lower branches of 

 the bush. 



The song of this bird, although not brilliant in execution nor by any 

 means loud, is nevertheless of such a character as to attract attention. It 

 has a melancholy pensiveness, remarkably in accord with the dreary monot- 

 ony of the surroundings, yet as a sort of compensation, is possessed of deli- 

 cacy of expression and peculiar pathos— just as the fine lights and shadows 

 on the sunlit mountains, combined with a certain vagueness in the di-eamy 

 distance, subdue the harsher features of the desert landscape. This song, 

 when first heard was mistaken for that of a lark (Sturnella negleda) half a 

 mile or so away ; but we soon found that the bird was scarcely two rods 

 distant. The early spring is when they sing most beautifully, the usual 

 note during other seasons being a faint twitter or chirp, generally uttered as 

 one chases another through the sage-brush. 



