TASSEHELLA MEGAimYNCIIA. 485 



ful in the lower valleys. In Parley's Park it was a rather common summer 

 resident, inhabiting the open slopes or level pieces of ground covered by 

 low shrubs, weeds, and grass, in company with ZonotrkUa leucophrys and 

 Pooecetes confinis. We did not hear its song, but its ordinary note was a 

 rather strong chuck, much like that of Passerella sckidacea. In the autunm 

 it was common among the willows along Deep Creek, in northwestern Utah, 

 and in April was quite abundant in the bushy fields at the base of the Sierra 

 Nevada, near Carson City, particularly in places near springs or close by 

 the streams. 



List of specimens. 



563, ? ad.; Car.son City, Nevada, April 20, 1SG8. 5/^— 7^— 2f— 2. Upper mandi- 

 ble, blackish, toiniuiu and lower maudible, dull brownish-ashy; rictus, pale yellow; iris, 

 bister; tarsi and toes, dilute horn-color. 



932, <J ad.; Upper Humdoklt Valley, September 16, 18G8. .fjj— S^— 2fL— 1 J— 3J— 

 ^tV Upper mandible, plumbeous-black, the tomium [)ale yellowish-olive; lower mandi- 

 ble, pale grayish-olive, more yellowish basally ; rictus, light yellow; iris, hazel; tarsi, 

 pale brown, toes darker. 



949, i ad.; Deep Creek, Utah, October .5, 18GS. 5J— 7J— (?)— 2i. Upper maudi- 

 ble, dull plumbeous-black, tomium and lower maudible, light dull cinereous, more yel- 

 lowish-lilaceous basally beneath; rictus, pale yellow; iris, sepia-drab; tarsi and toes, 

 pale horn-color. 



1276, nest and eggs (4); Parley's Park, Wahsatch Mountains, Utah, June 24, 

 1SC9. Nest on ground, beneath prostrate sage-bush, near stream. 



Passbeella megarhyncua. 



Thick-billed Spai-iovv. 



Passerella megarhyncha, Baird, Birds N. Am., 1858, 925, pi. lxix, fig. 4; Cat. N. 



Am. Birds, 1859, No. 376a.— Coopek, Orn. Cal., I, 1S70, 222. 

 Passerella townsendi var. megarhyncha, B, B. & R., Ilist. N. Am. Birds, II, 1874, 



- 57, pi. XXVIII, fig. 10. 

 Passerella toivnsendi var. scMstacea, CoUES, Birds N.W., 1874, 1(12 (iiart). 



This very interesting bird was met with only in the I'aviues of the 

 Sierra Nevada, near Carson City and Washoe. Unlike P. schisf.acca, it was 

 strictly a migrant, being entirely absent during the winter, and not arriving 

 from the south until about the 20th of April. It was found mostly in 

 damp or swampy places in the lower portion of the movintains, and was 

 particularly numerous where the alders grew abundantly along the streams. 

 In such places they were singing loudly on every hand, and their songs, 



