The Nelson Sparrow 



every available tuft of grass as a screen to hide behind. When she 

 reached a little ridge about twenty feet away she hopped up in plain 

 sight, and took a flying hop to another ridge a few feet farther away. 

 To a passerby she would appear to have flushed from a point some 

 twenty feet away from the nest. Mr. Schnack observed the bird when 

 she left the nest several times, and he said that this was her character- 

 istic way of leaving it. The male could be heard uttering a faint 

 insect-like chip from some clod or ridge near by, but he was very shy 

 and kept circling the nest at a distance." 



No. 45 



Nelson's Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 549.1. Ammospiza caudacuta nelsoni (Allen). 



Synonym. — Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow. 



Description. — Adult (sexes alike) : Pileum narrowly black, warmed by brown 

 edgings; a median stripe of olive-gray, broadening behind; a narrow nuchal collar, 

 dresden brown centrally, olive-gray laterally, in highest plumage pattern of back and 

 scapulars falling into four broad stripes of mingled black and dark brown, bordered 

 narrowly by white and converging behind; the effect carried out by tertials having 

 black centers and white lateral borders (in lower plumage pattern lost, but all colors 

 represented as streaks); rump and upper tail-coverts mingled olive-gray and tawny- 

 olive sharply streaked with black; edge of wing pale yellow, the flight-feathers with 

 tawny olive edging (carrying out color scheme of sides); throat narrowly and belly 

 broadly white; remaining plumage, viz., sides of head (enclosing a gray space bordered 

 above with black), chest broadly, sides, and crissum, clay-color (grayish orange- 

 yellow), the chest and sides obscurely streaked with dusky. Bill dark brown above, 

 lighter below; feet and legs (drying) brownish. Length about 139.7 (5-5°) i wing 55 

 (2.17); tail 47.5 (1.87); bill 10.4 (.41); tarsus 20 (.79). Females average smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; strong tawny (clay-colored) suffusion of 

 breast, superciliary and sides; variegated pattern of upperparts, which always in- 

 cludes sharp white streaks on scapulars. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: On the ground, of grasses, 

 usually well concealed by surrounding grasses. Eggs: 5; whitish or dull greenish 

 white, heavily speckled and spotted, or else nearly buried in reddish brown (Rood's 

 brown to snuff brown). Av. size 19 x 13.7 (.75 x .54). Season: About June 1st. 



Range of Ammospiza caudacuta. — Marshes both salt and fresh of eastern and 

 interior North America. Winters on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Caro- 

 lina to Texas. 



Range of A. c. nelsoni. — The interior representative, breeding from Great 

 Slave Lake and west central Alberta southeastward to northeastern South Dakota; 

 winters on South Atlantic and Gulf coasts; casual on the north Atlantic coast during 

 migrations as far as Maine. Accidental in California. 



Occurrence in California. — See below. 



266 



