382 PEINGILLID^. 



grasses with a lining of softer material. The eggs are five or six in number and vary 

 considerably ; in some the ground colour is greenish white with blotches of various 

 shades of brown, red, and purple ; these blotches are more numerous about the larger end, 

 where they form a ring ; in others the spots are so numerous as to hide the ground 

 colour. 



2. Passerculus rostratus. 



Emberiza rostrata, Cassin^ Pr. Ac. Phil. 1852, p. 18i\ 

 Ammodromus rostratus, Cassin, 111. B. Calif. & Texas, p. 326, t. 38 ^ 



Passerculus rostratus, Baird, Brew., fe Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. p. 542'; Eidgw. Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. 

 V. p. 537* ; Belding, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 343 '. 



Supra griseo-fuscus fere unioolor, striis otscuris fere alDsconditis ; capita summo vix striate, alis efc cauda fusco- 

 nigris rufescente fusco limbatis ; superciliis sordide albis, stria rictali fusca ; subtus albidus, gutture, 

 pectore et hypochondriis guttulatis ; rostro robueto corneo, mandibula pallida, pedibus corylinis. Long. 

 tota4'8, al8e2'7, caudae 2*0, rostri a rictu 0*55, tarsi 0'85. (Descr. maris ex Gua3n[iias, Mexico. Smiths. 

 Inst. no. 89910.) 



5 mari omnino similis. 



Hah. North America, coast of California ^^ to Cape S. Lucas ^^. — Mexico, Guaymas 

 [Belding ^). 



This species can readily be separated from P. sandwichensis by its very stout bill, 

 more arched culmen, the absence of a vertical median stripe, the obsolete streaks of the 

 back, which is nearly of a uniform colour, and the white superciliary streak with no 

 yellow in the anterior portion. 



P. rostratus appears to be restricted in its range to the coast of California and the 

 shores of the Gulf of that name, and it is included in our Fauna from specimens having 

 been obtained by Mr. L. Belding at Guaymas ^- It was first discovered by Dr. Heer- 

 mann near San Diego, on the coast of California \ where it frequented the sedge-grass 

 near the sea-beach, feeding on seeds, &c., thrown up by the waves. Other observers 

 have noticed it in similar situations. Of its breeding-habits nothing has been recorded 

 so far as we know. Mr. Eidgway has carefully tabulated the measurements of a series 

 of specimens of P. rostratus from Lower California, with a view to ascertain the status 

 of the allied forms P. guttatus and P. sanotorum ; the result shows that both of these 

 birds are probably inseparable from P. rostratus ^- 



POCECETES. 



Poocates, Baird, Birds N. Am. p. 447 (1858) ; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. Birds, i. p. 544. 

 Poaecetes, Cones, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 364. 



This genus is very closely allied to Passerculus, from which it differs in the wings 

 being longer in proportion to the tail, the primaries considerably exceeding the secon- 

 daries in length. The claw of the hind toe is rather shorter than in Passerculus, the 



