144 THE RUSTY SONG SPARROW. 
in mating time; but they like to assure themselves, nevertheless, that a dozen 
of their fellows are within call against a time of need. 
Silver-tongue is a bird of the ground and contiguous levels. When 
hiding, he does not seek the depths of the foliage in trees, but skulks among 
the dead leaves on the ground, or even threads his way thru log heaps. If 
driven from one covert, the bird dashes to another with an odd jerking 
flight, working its tail like a pump-handle, as tho to assist progress. Ordi- 
narily the bird is not fearful, altho retiring in disposition. Apart from the 
haunts of men the Song Sparrow of western Washington is closely attached 
to the water; and is not to be looked for save in damp woods, in swamps, 
in the vicinity of open water, whether of lake or ocean, or along the brushy 
margins of streams. Indeed, its habits are beginning to assume a slightly 
aquatic character. Not only does it plash about carelessly in shallow water, 
but it sometimes seizes and devours small minnows. 
Save in favored localities, such as the margins of a tule swamp, nests 
of the Rusty Song Sparrow are not obtrusively common. “Back East,” 
in a season of all around nesting, about one-fifth of the nests found would 
be those of the Song Sparrow. Not so on Puget Sound; for, altho the 
birds are common, heavy cover is ten times more common, and I would 
sooner undertake to find a dozen Warblers’ nests than as many Song 
Sparrows’. Nesting begins about April Ist, at which time nests are com- 
monly built upon the ground or in a tussock of grass or tules. The end 
of a log, overshadowed by growing ferns, is a favorite place later in the 
season; while brush-heaps, bushes, fir saplings, trees, or clambering vines, 
such as ivy and clematis, are not despised. 
The eggs, Mr. Bowles finds, are almost invariably four in number, as 
in a very large number of sets examined only one contained five eggs. 
They are of a light greenish blue in ground color, and are spotted and 
blotched heavily and irregularly with reddish browns, especially about the 
larger end. Several broods are raised each season. 
The Rusty Song Sparrow, because of its abundance in winter, affords 
the impression of being strictly a resident bird in western Washington. Such 
may be the case with a majority of the individuals, but there is still evidence 
of a southward movement of the race, the place of local birds being supplied 
in winter partly by British Columbia birds, which show a heavier and more 
uniformly blended type of plumage, approaching that of M. c. rufina. 
