WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 217 
grass is scratched together and serves as a nursery. It 
is always more or less damp, but this does not to any 
marked degree interfere with the hatching. When near 
their nests these birds skulk through the rushes in the 
same manner as a rail, straddling along with one foot on 
one tule and the other on a second. In the shadow of 
the rushes one might easily mistake them for little black 
rails. After the four weeks of this constant brushing 
through the rushes to and from the nest, both parents 
present a decidedly threadbare appearance, and_ their 
tails are often almost as stringy as a rat’s. Incubation 
lasts thirteen days, and the young remain in the nest 
ten days longer. They are fed mostly upon insects 
picked up in the damp grass or at the edge of the 
water. 
543. BELDING MARSH SPARROW. — Ammodramus 
beldingi. 
Famity: The Finches, Sparrows, ete. 
Length : 5.00-5.25. 
Adults: Upper parts olive-brown, with broad black streaks on back ; 
superciliary and median crown-stripe very indistinct or wanting ; fore- 
part of superciliary stripe greenish yellow ; sides of head and neck 
darker ; under parts more thickly and heavily marked with black ; 
under tail-coverts with concealed streaks. 
Young: Similar to adults, but upper parts more buffy ; superciliary 
finely streaked and usually without yellow ; under parts less dis- 
tinetly streaked. 
Geographical Distribution : Salt marshes of Southern California south to 
Lower California and Todos Santos Island. 
California Breeding Range: On southern coast marshes from Port Har- 
ford to National City. 
breeding Season : May. 
