The Belding Marsh Sparrow 



been very skeptical concerning its identification or connection with the 

 nest, but have kept the set in abeyance all this time. It looks now as if 

 Allen might have been pretty close to the truth, and that the bird was 

 this possible upland form." (Mailliard) 1 . 



No. 42 



Belding's Marsh Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 543. Passerculus beldingi Ridgway. 



Synonyms. — Belding's Sparrow. Southern Savanna Sparrow. San Diego 

 Marsh Sparrow. 



Description. — "Similar to P. sandwichensis bryanti, but still darker in colora- 

 tion, the underparts more heavily and more extensively streaked with black, the 

 upperparts more olivaceous and more uniform; wing and tail averaging shorter, but 

 bill larger; legs and feet darker (grayish brown)" (Ridgway). Also bill slenderer, 

 longer, and differently proportioned. Adults (sexes alike): Above blackish brown 

 highly varied and tempered by marginings of dull, rusty, grayish brown or olive- 

 gray; head showing obscurely the 12-rayed pattern of the genus, but central crown 

 stripe scarcely distinguishable, and the malar and sub-malar stripes less coherent, 

 superciliary pale yellow, and sometimes a yellow tinge spreading over crown; under- 

 parts white, or palest buffy, heavily streaked, especially on breast and sides, with 

 brownish black, the lateral streaks sometimes bordered vaguely with rusty brown; 

 the longest under tail-coverts narrowly and very sparingly streaked with blackish. 

 Bill brownish, darker above, lighter below; feet and legs brown. Length of adult 

 male about 146 (5.75); av. of males: wing 65.4 (2.58); tail 48.3 (1.90); bill II. 5 (.45); 

 depth at base 5.6 (.22); tarsus 21.3 (.84). Females somewhat smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; marsh-haunting habits; the darkest and 

 most heavily streaked of the Marsh Sparrows. 



Nesting. — Nest: On moist ground of tidal marsh in salicornia, well concealed, 

 or else in protecting clump of neighboring levels; a rather bulky cup of weed-stems 

 and grasses. Eggs: 3, or rarely, 4; greenish or bluish white, speckled and spotted 

 or washed and clouded with verona brown. Av. of 10 eggs in M. C. O. coll.: 18.5 

 x 14.2 (.73 x .56). Season: April-June, two broods. 



General Range. — Common resident of the coastal marshes from San Diego 

 north at least to Santa Barbara. Never strays far from the beach bluffs in the neigh- 

 borhood of salt marshes. 



Distribution in California. — As above. 



Authorities. — Coues (Passerculus anthinus), Ibis, ser. 2, vol. ii., 1866, p. 268; 

 Henshaw, Rept. Orn. Wheeler Survey, 1876, p. 240 (meas., habits); Ridgway, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. vii., 1885, p. 516 (desc. of beldingi); Gault, Bull. Ridgway Orn. 

 Club, vol. ii., 1887, pp. 58-60 (nesting) ; Belding, Occ. Papers, Calif. Acad. Sci., 2, 1890, 

 pp. 144-145 (nesting); Robertson, Bull. Cooper Orn. Club, vol. i., 1899, p. 73 (nesting); 

 Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 77 (status; nesting season). 



1 Joseph Mailliard in The Condor. Vol. XIX., March, 1917, p. 69. 

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