THE NUTTALL SPARROW. 7 
lining of fine dead grass and horse-hair; measures externally 6 in. wide by 4 
deep; internally 2% wide by 1 deep. Eggs: 4 or 5, pale bluish white, profusely 
dotted and spotted, or blotched, with varying shades of reddish brown. Avy. size 
86 x .64 (21.8x 16.3). Season: Last week in April, and May 25-June 10; two 
broods. 
General Range.—Pacific Coast district, breeding from Monterey, California, 
to Fort Simpson, British Columbia; south in winter to San Pedro Martir 
Mountains, Lower California. 
Range in Washington.—Of general distribution west of the Cascade 
Mountains at lower altitudes; casually winter resident. 
Migrations.—S pring: March 25-April 1. 
Authorities—Z. gambelii Gambel, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 
Pome (Cle) C&cSanlet(r in Ib4. Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk B: E. 
Specimens.—U. of W. P. B. BN. E. 
WHEN you enter a bit of shrubbery at the edge of town in May or 
June, your intrusion is almost sure to be questioned by a military gentleman 
in a gray cloak with black-and-white trimmings. Your business may be 
personal, not public, but somehow you feel as if the authority of the law had 
been invoked, and that you would better be careful how you conduct yourself 
in the presence of this military person. Usually retiring, the Nuttall Sparrow 
courts exposure where the welfare of his family is in question, and a metallic 
scolding note, sink, or dzink, is made to do incessant service on such occasions. 
A thoroly aroused pair, worms in beak, and crests uplifted, may voice their 
suspicions for half an hour from fir-tip and brush-pile, without once dis- 
closing the whereabouts of their young. 
Nuttall’s Sparrow is the familiar spirit of brush-lots, fence tangles, berry 
patches, and half-open situations in general. He is among the last to quit 
the confines of the city before the advancing ranks of apartment houses and 
sky-scrapers, and he maintains stoutly any vantage ground of vacant lot, 
disordered hedge-row, or neglected swamplet left to him. After the Rusty 
Song Sparrow, he is perhaps the commonest Sparrow in western Washing- 
fon—unquestionably so within the borders of settlement. 
As a songster this Sparrow is not a conspicuous success, altho he works 
at his trade with commendable diligence. He chooses a prominent station, 
such as the topmost sprig of a fir sapling, and holds forth at regular intervals 
in a prosy, iterative ditty, from which the slight musical quality vanishes 
with distance. Hee ho, chee weé, chee weé chee wééé and Hee, wudge, 
i-wudge i-wudge i-wéééé are vocalized examples. The preliminary hee ho 
is sometimes clear and sweet enough to prepare one’s ear for the Vesper 
Sparrow’s strain, but the succeeding syllables are tasteless, and the trill with 
which the effort concludes has a wooden quality which we may overlook in 
