322 Htjbbs, Nuttall's Sparrow in California. [ Ju U | y 



regions, regularly at least to Port Hartford. . . .sparingly to Santa 

 Barbara. Occurs scatteringly in winter beyond these limits, 

 interiorly to McCloud River" and the San Joaquin Valley, "and 

 southerly to Los Angeles" and vicinity; there has also been noted 

 "a regular local migration within Marin County from the seacoast, 

 where it breeds abundantly, to the interior, as at San Geronimo, 

 where it winters plentifully." x It also winters abundantly in its 

 breeding zone, for instance near Monterey. 



Z. I. nuttalli occurs on the terrace between the hills of the San 

 Francisco Peninsula and the sea. Near Monterey it bred abun- 

 dantly in the tree lupines about Point Pinos before the improvement 

 of this area; it entered the pine forests only in the open places near 

 their coastwise margins. Along the southern shores of Monterey 

 County the mountains of the Coast Range rise precipitously from 

 the sea, — here our sparrow is " abundant in the narrow belt of 

 yellow lupine (Lupinns arbor ens) which lies along the coast from 

 Monterey to San Carpojo [in northernmost San Louis Obispo 

 County]. Also found as far inland as the blue lupine extends, 

 which is sometimes two or three miles up the canyons on the shady 

 side. Found nowhere else." 2 At one point along this rugged 

 coast there is a terrace, about a half mile wide, between the cliffs 

 and the mountains; this .terrace is called "Pacific Valley," because 

 it is the only level land in the region. A post office called Gorda 

 is situated here, and at this secluded place the writer had the good 

 fortune to observe Nuttall's Sparrow in the height of its breeding 

 season, when its pleasant little song added life to the rough shore 

 line. Although time did not permit searching for them, a number 

 of fresh nests were stumbled onto at the edge of the cliffs: May 17, 

 one nest with three, and one with two eggs, both placed between 

 one and two feet from the ground in thick clumps of sage (Artemisia 

 calif ornica) ; May 18, one nest with two eggs, and another with 

 two newly hatched young and one egg, both placed lower than two 

 feet in sage; lastly a nest with two eggs, located two feet high in a 

 blue lupine. This sparrow was entirely absent from the slope of 

 the adjacent mountains, even at their bases, whether timbered or 

 not (May 19). 



iGrinnell, ibid., 11, 1915, p. 117. 

 2 Jenkins, Condor, 8, 1906, p. 128. 



