NORTH AMERICAN BIRUH. . 375 



5506. TEXAS SEASIDE SPAEE.OW. Ammodrmnus maritimus sennetti Allen. 

 Geog. Dist. — Gulf coast of Texas, Corpus Chrlstl to Galveston Bay. 



In color this subspecies is similar to A. maritimus, but all the colors are lighter 

 and paler, the nape being distinctly streaked with black. Mr. W. E. Grover in The 

 Oologist for November, 1893, describes a domed nest of this bird containing four eggs. 

 He says: "April 19, 1892 found me in a large salt mtrsh looking for Sparrow nests. 

 After a two mile tramp one nest was found, containing four fresh eggs. The ground 

 color is white shoeing the faintest tinge of green; the markings are small dots 

 sprinkled over the entire egg, mostly, however, at the larger end, of a red-brown 

 color. The nest was loosely made of dead grass, lined with finer, and was very 

 neatly worked in the heart of a tussock of salt grass, eleven inches above the water, 

 which was four inches deep. Externally the nest measured four and one-half inches 

 in diameter by three inches high; walls one and a quarter inches thick; bottom one 

 and three-quarter inches thick. Inside measured two inches in diameter by one and 

 a quarter inches deep. Very often the high spring tides wash the nest away, but 

 nothing daunted the birds build a new nest, weaving it in the tops of rank grass or 

 rushes, and if in the latter, using the leaves to dome the nest, or rather make a 

 rainproof roof for it. When placed in this position the nests are hard to find, as they 

 are woven of green grass in the shape of a ball, with the entrance on one side near 

 the top. As a general thing they prefer thick grass growing on edge of a small 

 bayou." 



550c. LOTJISIAITA SEASIDE SPARROW. Ammodramus maritimus macgil- 

 livrayi Aud. Geog. Dist. — Coast of Louisiana, to coast of Texas in winter. 



From eggs taken on the coast of Louisiana in my collection there appears to be 

 no distinction whatever from those of A. maritimus. 



551. DUSKY SEASIDE SPARROW. Ammodramus nigrescens Ridgw. Geog. 

 Dist.^ — Salt Lake and Merritt Island, Eastern Florida. 



Mr. C. J. Maynard, the only collector who has ever met with this species, found a 

 single individual, March 17, 1872, at Salt Lake, near Titusville, while in April it was 

 "quite common on the marshes of Indian river just below Dummett's Grove" and 

 "very abundant on the upper end of Merritt's Island." A very distinct species and 

 can be distinguished from A. m. peninsula;, its nearest ally, by its much darker upper 

 parts and conspicuously streaked under parts. Mr. Frank M. Chapman in his "Birds 

 of Eastern North America," says that this Sparrow apparently has a more restricted 

 range than any other North American bird. During February and March he searched 

 for the Dusky Seaside Sparrow in the marshes of the east peninsula of Indian river,, 

 opposite Micco, but without success. The nest and eggs are unknown. 



553. DARK SPARROW. Chondestes grammacus (Say.) Geog. Dist. — Missis- 

 sippi Valley, west to the Plains, east to Ohio, north to Michigan and south to Eastern 

 Texas, Louisiana, etc.; accidental near the Atlantic coast. 



Throughout the Mississippi Valley the Lark Finch is found breeding more or 

 less abundantly in all suitable places, from Eastern Texas and Louisiana on the 

 south to Iowa and Southern Michigan on the north. Its favorite summer resorts are 

 prairie lands, clover and stubble-fields, neglected and sparsely wooded pastures and 

 fields bordered with low trees. Breeds in May, June and July according to locality 

 sometimes two and three broods are reared. It is one of the sweetest songsters 

 among our Sparrows. Its song is uttered in a hurried manner, "in one continuous 



