NORTH AMKK1CAN HIItltH. 387 



cealed, either sunken in the ground or a few inches above it, in the lower branches of 

 a bush; they are composed of sage-brush bark, dry grasses, etc. The eggs are light 

 greenish, marked all over with very fine dots of a reddish-brown, around the larger 

 end a ring of confluent blotches of dark purple and lines of darker brown; almost 

 black; size .80x.60. Three or four are the usual number deposited. 



5746. QUAY SAGE SPARROW. AmpUspiza belli cinerca Townsend. Geog. 

 Dist. Lower California. 



Little is known concerning the habits of this cinerous colored Sage Sparrow. 

 They no doubt are identical with those of A. b. nevadensis. 



575. PINE-WOODS SPARROW. Peuccea wstivalls (Licht.) Geog. Dist. 

 Florida and southern portion of Georgia. 



The Pine-woods Sparrow is common in some localities of Florida, where it breeds 

 In May and June. In Alachua county, Florida, Mr. Frank M. Chapman states that 

 it is common only in one locality, a high, open, palmetto pinery, where, May 21, 1837, 

 a nest was found with four fresh eggs. In a letter to the late Major Bendire, Mr. 

 Chapman states that this nest was placed beneath a scrub palmetto, and was con- 

 structed almost entirely of fine, dry grasses. It was firmly made, and held well 

 together when lifted from the ground. It was not arched over in any way, which 

 seems to be the peculiarity in the nests of Peuccea ccstivalis bachmanii. The nest was 

 perfectly round, with the sides of rims everywhere of equal height, and was a sym- 

 metrical and well-proportioned structure. Three of the eggs taken by Mr. Chapman 

 are in the National Museum collection, and are described by Major Bendire as pure 

 white, slightly glossy, and rounded-oval in shape; sizes, .71x.61, .74x.61, .71x.61 inches. 



575a. BACHMAN'S SPARROW. Peuccea ccstivalis bachmanii (Aud.) Geog. 

 Dist. South Atlantic and Gulf States, and Lower Mississippi Valley, north to North 

 Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, Kentucky, Southern Illinois, and west to middle North- 

 ern Texas. 



Mr. Arthur T. Wayne informs me that in the region about Charleston, South 

 Carolina, Bachman's Finch breeds in April, May, June and July, making its nest 

 upon the ground in pine woods. He states that the birds breed in numbers seven 

 miles north of Charleston, but the nests are difiicult to find, only a single one having 

 come under his observation. Mr. William Lloyd notes Bachman's Sparrow as a sum- 

 mer visitor in eastern Concho county, Texas, where nests are found from May 20 to 

 June 1. Major Charles E. Bendire describes five nests, and several full sets of eggs 

 of Bachman's Sparrow, which were presented to the National Museum collection by 

 Dr. William C. Avery, of Greensboro, Alabama, in which vicinity they were taken in 

 the months of May and June. Major Bendire says: "All the nests of this bird 

 vary totally in structure from those of the other species of the genus Peuccea, as they 

 are known to me. They are all distinctly roofed-over or domed, a feature only found 

 in the nest of a closely allied species, Embernagra rufivirgata, the Texas Sparrow, 

 which constructs a somewhat similar nest. They are cylindrical in shape, about 

 seven or eight inches long by three inches in height and four and one-half inches 

 wide. The inner cavity is from three to four inches in length, about two inches wide, 

 and one and three-quarters inches high. The rear wall of the nest is about one and " 

 three-quarters inches thick, the sides about an inch, and the roof a little over half 

 an inch in thickness. These measurements vary somewhat in different specimens. 

 The nests are all constructed out of dry grasses exclusively, and are lined with fine 



