218 LAND BIRDS 



Nest : Placed in salt marsh mud, raised about 6 inches from the 

 ground; made of weed stalks, grass, horsehair, or feathers. 



Hggs : 3 ; light blue, marked with lavender specks ; reddish brown 

 blotches principally at the larger end. Size 0.78 X 0.58. 



The Belding Marsh Sparrow is abundant on the 

 salt marshes near the coast of Southern California from 

 Santa Barbara south to Lower California. It replaces 

 the Bryant marsh sparrow of the San Francisco Bay 

 region. Like the latter, its nest is a thin mat of grass 

 on the ground as near the edge of the marsh as the tide 

 will allow. In the vicinity of National City, San Diego 

 County, the nests outnumber those of any other sparrow. 

 Many of them are placed on tussocks of grass, whicli 

 raise them several inches above the ground. Even then 

 they are usually quite damp, and we might expect to 

 find the eggs addled, which they doubtless would be 

 were not the water salt. In May, or early June, the 

 newly hatched, naked, pinky grayish nestlings are to be 

 found wriggling their wrinkled necks and opening their 

 tiny mouths for food. This consists of the insects picked 

 up from the wet vegetation, and the* seeds of marsh 

 plants given at first by regurgitation. By June 20 the 

 young sparrows are looking out for themselves, secure 

 in their protective coloring in the long grass. 



544. LARGE-BILLED SPARROW. — Passaculm 

 rostraius. 



Family : The Finches, Sparrows, etc. 



Length: 5.30. 



Adults: Upper parts light grayish brown, indistinctly streaked with 



darker : under parts streaked with rusty brown : bill long and 



swollen and regularly curved from the base. 



