Hie Song Sparrows 



nothing else to speak of — a dreary waste, of interest chiefly to Rails and 

 Salt Marsh Song Sparrows. The latter haunt the oozy slopes of the 

 tide-guts and snatch dainties from a salty menu, keeping a sharp eye, 

 meanwhile, not to get their toes nipped by lurking crabs. Their bibs 

 get pretty badly stuck up with salicornia juice and the ever generous 

 octze; but brackish pools are ever handy for ablution and a chance at 

 minnows besides. Then in the springtime, because the salicornia is 

 really impossible, the Lord sends a little green bush for a nesting site. 

 The bush must have a Latin name, but it is unknown to the deponent. 

 It is ordained to be a little greener and a little taller than the salicornia, 

 and if it suits the Song Sparrow, as it certainly does, we will call it the 

 Salt Marsh Song Sparrow Nesting Bush (or Busha pusillulce for short, 

 if our Latin friends insist). Anyhow, all one has to do during the first 

 week in April is to visit every little green bush growing in the San Fran- 

 cisco marshes, and gather Salt Marsh Song Sparrows' eggs, or "infor- 

 mation," according to the state of his development. The nests are there, 

 and the information easy — also uniform. The eggs are, of course, 

 indistinguishable from those of other forms; but the nests are unique, in 

 that they are composed of plastic or sodden strands of some sort of marsh 

 waste which, upon drying, forms a sturdy and uncommonly durable 

 structure. 



No. 62i Santa Cruz Song Sparrow 



A. 0. U. No. 58id, part. Melospiza melodia santaecrucis Grinnell. 



Description. — Most like the next to be described, but smaller. Also similar 

 to M. m. pusillula, but much larger; the juvenal but not the immature (final autumnal) 

 plumage suffused with buffy yellow; the contrast in this regard between two adjacent 

 "races" of one species, and those existing continuously within sight of each other, 

 gives food for reflection. Measurements of males (orig. desc): wing 61.2 (2.41); 

 tail 67.5 (2.66); bill 11. 4 (.45). Females smaller. 



Range (Wholly in California). — Resident chiefly on fresh-water marshes and 

 along streams in the Santa Cruz district, from San Francisco south to the Sur River 

 in Monterey County, east to include the Santa Clara valley, and north to Berkeley, 

 south interiorly to Shandon and Santa Margarita in San Luis Obispo County (where 

 shading into M. m. cooperi). 



Authorities. — Grinnell, Condor, vol. iii., 1901, p. 92 (orig. desc; Palo Alto); 

 ibid., Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. II, 1915, p. 125 (range; crit.). 



No. 62j San Diego Song Sparrow 



A. 0. U. No. 581m. Melospiza melodia cooperi Ridgway. 



Description. — Adults {sexes alike) and Immatures: Above and on sides mingled 

 olive-gray, olive-buff, rusty red, and black, the olive-gray element strongest anteriorlv. 

 the olive-buff posteriorly, the black element existing centrally on feathers, sharpest 

 on pileum, broadest on back, scapulars, and exposed portions of tertials, the rusty 

 element, as Prout's brown, bordering feathers of pileum, exposed portion of greater 



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