The Belding Marsh Sparrow 



THE "SAVANNA" Sparrows, 

 elsewhere highly migratory, have 

 along the coasts of the Californias 

 become largely sedentary, and are, 

 therefore, better known as Marsh 

 Sparrows. Most contented of all are 

 the little dark beldingis, which inhabit 

 the tidal marshes such as dot the 

 coast between Santa Barbara and 

 San Quentin Bay, L. C. We are 

 bound to admit that the birds' re- 

 quirements as to house furnishing, 

 "garden sass," and such, are of the 

 most modest; but "eternal sunshine" 

 (with a judicious blending of eternal 

 fog), a glimpse of the empurpled 

 hills, and the wafting of gentle sea 

 breezes, the purest on earth, make 

 beldingi immeasurably content with 

 his little plot of salicornia and his 

 front parapet of sand dunes. So far 

 as we know, therefore, the Belding 

 Marsh Sparrow is absolutely seden- 

 tary, and each individual lives and 

 dies in its own little pasture. 



But it never occurs to anyone to 

 pity the Belding Marsh Sparrows, 

 We are filled with envy, instead, as 

 often as we visit their haunts. Every rod's advance through the impeding 

 succulent weeds puts up a sparrow who forthwith posts on an uppermost 

 spray and regards you with patient indulgence; or else signals to his 

 fellows, similarly posted, as to the next convenient rendezvous. Presently 

 he plumps into the depths again, and pursues his business so adroitly 

 that you will scarcely see him after. It is all so detached, so other- 

 worldly, so utterly beyond your feeble apprehensions, that you feel like 

 an unlettered cow permitted to stand in a clover field where fairies are 

 at play. 



The case is quite hopeless unless you are provided with binoculars, 

 say of 8-power. It is good sport, then, to study the sleek outlines of a 

 posted sparrow, to note the smart blackish stripes which crowd the 

 chest and cover the flank, the touch of yellow over the eye, which relates 

 the bird to sandwichensis , the feet darker than any other of the genus, 



Taken in Santa Barbara County Photo by the Author 



BELDING MARSH SPARROW 



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