It BENDIRE on the Habits of the Genus Passerella. [April 
National Museum No. 18,725, containing four eggs almost 
hatched, was placed in aservice-berry bush about three feet from 
the ground, on the border of a dense pine grove. This nest is 
composed externally of coarse plant fibres and dry willow 
bark, and is lined with fine grasses and a few horse-hairs. 
It is not as compactly built as nests of Townsend’s or Slate-col- 
ored Sparrows. Its exterior is five inches wide by two and one 
half inches deep; inner diameter, three inches; depth, one and a 
quarter inches. It was evidently deeper originally, and has been 
much compressed and flattened in packing. 
Another nest, taken July 5, 1883, was likewise found in a ser- 
vice-berry bush, growing on the banks of Wood River and 
partly overhanging it. This nest was placed about eight inches 
from the ground. It also contained four eggs, with medium- 
sized embryos. The female allowed me almost to touch her, 
and did not appear to be very much distressed at her loss, 
hopping around on the ground and undergrowth in the vicinity, 
uttering an occasional szzp till she was shot. This bird had 
also previously been found breeding by Mr. L. Belding of Stock- 
ton, Cala., on June 7 and 14, 1879, at Big Trees, Calaveras 
County, California, and several specimens of the eggs collected by 
him are now before me; and, as far as I know, the credit of the 
first discovery of the nest and eggs of the Thick-billed Sparrow 
belongs to this gentleman. 
In the twenty specimens of the eggs of this species now before 
me the ground color varies from a pale grayish green to grayish 
blue. The markings on the majority of these eggs seem to be 
finer and more evenly and regularly distributed over the entire 
egg than in the other forms already mentioned, with a tendency 
to running longitudinally. The spots and blotches vary from 
walnut-brown and burnt umber to fawn color, lilac, and mouse- 
gray in different specimens. The largest egg of the series meas- 
ures .gS X .68, the smallest .82x.61 inch. The average is .87 x 
.65 inch. Mr. Charles H. Townsend found this Sparrow quite 
common about Mt. Shasta, California, during summer in 
1883 and 1884, where it frequented the chaparral tracts and 
bushes scattered through the pine country, and where it bred, as 
indicated by the number of immature birds met with. I have 
never met with these birds north of Fort Klamath, and this point 
marks probably their northern breeding limit. 
