78 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



along, just skimming above the ground, and after a short flight pitching into the 

 first bunch of weeds that ofifers concealment. 



Sometimes a startled, squeaky note is heard as the bird takes flight, the only 

 attempt this sparrow ever makes to voice its feelings during its winter sojourn 

 with us. Except when startled into these sudden flights it spends all its time on 

 the ground, and nearly always in grass where it cannot be seen ; so that one 

 might remain unaware of its presence for years unless an especial search was 

 made for it. 



The Western Savannah Sparrow is just one of many plain little sparrows 

 and has nothing about its appearance or habits to render it noticeable, yet it is 

 withal, a most interesting bird and well worth observing. No doubt a careful 

 study of it would prove immensely interesting and worth while. 



I have seen this species as early as September 24 (1905), and Mr. Grinnell 

 has recorded it from an adjoining county as late as May 4 (Condor, xiii, 191 i, 

 p. no). 



Western Grasshopper Sparrow. Ammodramus savaimamm bimaculatus 

 (Swainson). 



Western Grasshopper Sparrows are probably not as rare in the winter as 

 might be supposed, but their habits render them inconspicuous and they are easily 

 overlooked. Old, weedy fields, weed-grown vineyards, and berry patches are 

 their favorite resorts, where they are found with Western Savannah and Western 

 Vesper sparrows. I have found it very difficult to identify with certainty some 

 of the smaller sparrows in the field, or to distinguish between one or two 01 the 

 several terrestrial species as the birds skulk through the weeds or dart away trom 

 under the feet of a pedestrian, only to settle again a few yards away after an 

 erratic and apparently aimless flight. In the case of the present species, however, 

 I have observed a tendency to run away rather than to fly, and in fact it requires 

 some fast walking to get them to take wing. 



February 18, 191 1, I secured a male of this species near Clovis. The locality 

 was a weed-grown young vineyard fiom which the brush had been pruned and 

 allowed to lie where it fell. 



I have suspected that possibly, on rare occasions, the Western Grasshopper 

 Sparrow might be found breeding in this vicinity, and based this belief on 

 the following incidents. One year, in late August, I had occasion to cross a large 

 summer-fallow field, and when about at the middle came upon the bed of a 

 slough that was then dry but had carried quite a volume of water earlier in the 

 season. For twenty yards or more on either side was a thick growth of tall sun- 

 flowers and cockleburrs, and while passing through these I happened to notice 

 a small nest neatly concealed among the weeds at the base of a sunflower stalk. 

 This nest was undoubtedly the work of some small sparrow but was unlike any 

 with which I am familiar, being much too small for a nest of our most common 

 ground-nesting member of this family. In fact, it answered very well to the de- 

 scriptions of nests of the Grasshopper Sparrow, but as there were no birds pres- 

 ent at the time I had no means of determining, for a certainty, what species had 

 constructed it. 



On the eighth of June, 1912, the writer enjoyed a day in the field with Mr. 



