BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC DISTRICT. 145 



song traced by me to this bird, but Mr. Holterhoff, who 

 for months has nearly every morning and evening 

 passed through the marshes between San Diego and 

 National City, says he has often heard them sing. This 

 appears to be the only Ammodramus which breeds in 

 San Diego County. The nest found April 4 was near 

 the beach just above high tide in a dense growth of 

 Salicornia, Atriplex and Frankenia. It was composed 

 of surf-worn eel grass mostly, lined with a few feathers. 

 The eggs are of a faint greenish, or bluish white ground 

 color, one being paler than the other and perhaps 

 unfertile, both heavily blotched with brown of nearly 

 uniform shade, confluent and hiding the ground color 

 at the large end. Measurement, 80x55 80x56. It 

 frequently runs on the sandy beach, not far from cover, 

 when pursuing insects, quite as rapidly as a sandpiper. 



Mr. Henshaw's Santa Barbara specimens being in 

 worn and faded plumage, as the species usually is in 

 June and July, did not attract his attention as they 

 must otherwise have done. 



The first specimens I collected were taken at San 

 Quintin Bay, where no other Ammodrami were present 

 to confuse me. One of these I labeled P. guttatus, with 

 an interrogation. Afterward, having given it much at- 

 tention about San Diego in the winter of 1883-4, I be- 

 came convinced that it was a distinct species. 



163. Ammodramus rostratus Cass. LARGE-BILLED 



SPARROW. 



Common in winter in the Cape Region, at San Diego 

 and San Pedro during the same time, and prob- 

 ably formerly bred at the two latter localities. I 

 could not find the species about San Diego Bay 

 or False Bay in April and May, 1881, nor in April 

 and May of the years 1884 and 1885, in the lat- 



10 



