BIRDS OF KANSAS. 479 



fer much, if any, in habits and actions from the Fox Sparrow. 

 The following description is taken from "North American Land 

 Birds:" 



"Mr. Ridgway found the Slate-colored Sparrow at Carson 

 City, during its spring migrations northward, in the early part 

 of March. At this time it was seen only among the willows 

 along the Carson Kiver, and was by no means common. It had 

 the habit of scratching among the dead leaves, on the ground 

 in the thickets, precisely after the manner of the eastern P. ili- 

 aca. In the following September, he again found it among the 

 thickets in the upper Humboldt Valley. In Parley's Park, 

 among the Wasatch Mountains, he found it a very plentiful spe- 

 cies in June, nesting among the willows and shrubbery along 

 the streams. There it was always found in company with 

 the M. fallax, which in song it greatly resembles, though its 

 other notes are quite distinct, the ordinary one being a sharp 

 'Chuck.'* The nest of the two species, he adds, were also 

 so much alike in manner of construction and situation, and the 

 eggs so similar, that it required a careful observation to identify 

 a nest when one was found. 



"The eggs from one nest of the Passerella iliaca schistacea 

 measure .90 x. 70 of an inch, have a ground of light mountain 

 green, and are profusely spotted with blotches of a rufous 

 brown, generally diffused over the entire egg. 



"Another nest of this species, obtained in Parley's Park, in 

 the Wasatch Mountains, by Mr. Ridgway, June 23d, 1869, was 

 built in a clump of willows, about two feet from the ground. 

 The nest is two inches in height, two and a half in diameter, 

 cavity one and a half deep, with a diameter of two. It is com- 

 posed externally of coarse, decayed water grass, and is lined with 

 fine hair and finer material like the outside. The eggs (four in 

 number) are .80x. 67 of an inch; of a very rounded oval shape; 

 the ground color of a pale green, blotched and marked (chiefly 

 at the larger end) with brown spots of a wine-colored hue." 



* While the female i8 covering her eggs, the male may frequently be heard giving vent to 

 his nuptial song, in the early morning arid just before sundown. His lay, however, is rather 

 weak and of small compass, very much rese.mbling that of Melospiza fa sciata montana. He 

 delivers it while perched on some small twig, overlooking the thicket in which the nest is 

 placed, and generally close to it. Their usual call note is a repeated " Tzip, tzip." (Bendire. ) 



