Vol 'l906 IJ ] Anthony, The Large-billed Sparrow. 151 



the question at issue. The beach at this point was, in 1887, thickly 

 covered by drift wood, which reached back some two hundred feet 

 to the sand dunes and was often piled up several feet in height. 

 Through these tangled piles of drift rostratus were running, dodging 

 in and out very much after the manner of Rock Wrens in a pile of 

 rocks, and it was one of the many seen here that I shot and recorded 

 as a nesting bird on the evidence of a swollen and bare breast. 



I was at that time unfamiliar with the fauna of the coast, and 

 supposed that I would find plenty of nests at San Quintin, my next 

 camp. I allowed the opportunity to pass, and in several years 

 spent in Lower California never again collected at San Ramon. 

 Several years later, in discussing the possible nesting grounds of 

 this species with Mr. A. M. Ingersoll of San Diego, he told me of 

 seeing a Large-billed Sparrow collecting the larva of the flesh fly 

 about the carcass of a cow near San Diego. The very businesslike 

 way in which the bird flew away, maintaining a direct flight as far 

 as his eye could follow, led him to believe that it went direct to a 

 nest of young, but at such a distance that he was unable to locate it. 

 There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Ingersoll did happen on a 

 nesting bird, but perhaps one somewhat out of the nesting ground 

 proper, for I have since then, on two or three occasions, found 

 families of young that were still fed by their parents on the beach 

 near Ocean Side, not far from where Mr. Ingersoll found the bird 

 that I recorded. The fact that these young were still in groups of 

 three to four, and still fed by one or both parents, would argue that 

 the nesting ground was not many miles distant. 



In searching for a possible breeding ground my thoughts harked 

 back to the San Ramon capture, and I recalled that a few hundred 

 feet back from the beach occurred a number of small lagoons caused 

 by the river being cut off from entrance to the Pacific by a series of 

 sand dunes and bars, a very common condition and one found at 

 the mouths of many of the shallow ' rivers ' of southern and Lower 

 California. These shallow ponds, extending for perhaps half a 

 mile along the beach, were thickly grown along the banks with 

 tules, furnishing cover for many of the birds of that region. Dur- 

 ing the few hours spent in collecting at this camp I paid no attention 

 to this cover, being more interested elsewhere, so I am unable to 

 say whether rostratus inhabited these thickets, but the piles of drift 



