486 ORNITnOLOGY. 



when first heard, seemed so simihir to tliose of the Large-billed Water 

 Thrush {Scivrus ludovicianus), of the east, that they were mistaken for the 

 notes of that bird, until the singers were seen and the species identified. 

 The song possessed but little resemblance to that of the /^ schistacea, being 

 so fiir superior as to be comparable only to that of the bird above men- 

 tioned, its chief qualities being great volume and liquidness. 

 List of fipccimenti. 



5130, $ ad; Carson City, Nevada, April 25, 18G8. 73— 10,%— 3J— lii|. General 

 hue of bill, milky lilaceous white, palest and purest ou lower mandible, which has a 

 delicate rosy tint basally beneath; culmen, pale plumbeous sepia; iris, bister; tarsi 

 and toes, deep, rather dilute sepia-brown. 



531, 9 ad.; Carson City, Nevada, April 25, 18G8. 7—'^—3^—'2j\. Same re- 

 maiks. 



PaSSEUELLA SCHlSTACExY. 



Slate-coloied Sparrow. 



rasso-clla schistacea, Baikd, B. N. Am., 1858, 490, pi. LXIX, flg. 3; Cat. N. Am. 



B., 1859, No. 376.— Cooper, Orn. Cal., I, 1870, 223 (figs, of head and feet). 

 rafscrcUa iliaca var. schistacea, Anlen, Bull. Mus. Corap. Zool., Ill, 1872, 1G8. — 



CouES, Key, 1872, 147. 

 Passerella toicnsendi var. schistacea, CoUES, Key, 1872, 352 ; Check List, 1873, No. 



lS9a; B. N.W., 1874, 162.— B. B. & R., Hist. N. Am. B., II, 1874, 56, pi. 



XXVIII, fig. 9.— Henshaw, 1875, 293. 



This species was first met with at Carson City, Nevada, during its 

 northward migration, which began late in February or early in March, 

 some few individuals having doubtless remained during the wintei- in the 

 shelter of the dense willow-thickets along the river. The following Septem- 

 ber it was observed in similar localities in the Upper Humboldt Valley ; 

 we may therefore judge that it is found, in proper season, and in suitable 

 localities, throughout the country between the Sierra Nevada and the 

 Wahsatch. During the summer months it was one of the commonest birds 

 in Parley's Park, wliei-e it was a constant associate of Mclospiza fallax in 

 the willow-thickets. It is (piite a counterpart of that species in manners 

 and notes, while the nests and eggs are similar to such a degree that it often 

 required the sjicrifice of the [)arent, and always a very close observation, 

 for the positive ideiitilication of the species. The ordinary note is a sharp 

 chuck ; but the song is scarcely distinguishable from that of Melofspiza fallax. 



