Bendire.] 120 [March 21, 



59. Passerella townsendi var. schistacea (Baird). Slate- 

 colored Sparrow. 



A common summer visitor; arrives about April 1. Their presence 

 is easily detected from the noise they make scratching among the 

 fallen leaves among the bushes in the creek bottoms. Their call- 

 note then is a faint tzip. It is very gentle and unsuspicious, prefer- 

 ring to breed in the vicinity of houses rather than at a distance. I 

 have found some twenty of their nests within half a mile of either 

 side of the post, in fact none, or very few, breed on Eattlesnake 

 Creek at a greater distance from it, either above or below the post. 

 The nest is usually placed in a dense willow or rose thicket, close to 

 water, from one to three feet from the ground. It is compactly con- 

 structed, larger than nests of Melospizse, and, as a rule, deeper. It 

 is composed of bark and grasses externally. These materials are 

 damp when first used, and are solidly worked into each other; the 

 inner lining consists of fine grasses, and usually some horsehair. 

 The eggs are four in number, seldom more; their ground color is a 

 bright green, and they are spotted principally about the larger end, 

 with two shades of brown, and some specimens also with lavender. 

 There is considerable difference in the amount of markings in eggs 

 of different nests. The average size of fourteen sets of eggs in my 

 collection is .87 X -64 of an inch. Compared with eggs of P. iliaca 

 from Labrador, I find a radical and constant difference both in the 

 ground color, which is much paler, and particularly in the style and 

 color of the markings. Both are entirely different. In the eggs of 

 P. iliaca the ground color is almost hidden by the markings. These 

 are evenly distributed over the entire egg, of a light rusty brown 

 color, giving the egg a reddish brown appearance. In over fifty 

 specimens of the var. schistacea there is not a single egg resembling 

 the six I have of P. iliaca. These were selected out of a number by 

 Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston, Mass., and kindly sent to me for com- 

 parison. On the other hand, the eggs of the Passerella townsendi 

 (Nut.) collected on Vancouver Island, B. C, by one of my corres- 

 pondents, are not distinguishable from those of the var. schistacea 

 found here. In the early spring the males of this species are often 

 seen perched on the top of some dead twig singing. Their song, 

 however, is very feeble. 



60. Hedymeles melanocephalus (Swain.). Black-headed 

 Grosbeak. 



A rare summer visitor. I have found two nests with, eggs, in the 



