84 
TIIE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
The first stranger was noted April 13, 1915, by Charles Schnack who found what he 
thought was the nest of a Savannah Sparrow; but not being sure of the species asked 
me to come with him prepared to collect the bird on the nest if need be. The species 
proved to be the Western Grasshopper Sparrow ( Ammoclramus savannarum bimacula- 
tus). The nest was located in an extensive, alkaline, salt-grass meadow. It was placed 
beside a clump of salt grass which originally covered the nest, in part, at least, shielding 
the brooding female from the more nearly vertical rays of the sun. The nest cavity 
seemed to have been scratched out, and the nest was very thin on the bottom so that 
the back of the brooding female on the nest was almost flush with the surface of the 
ground. 
When we approached the nest the female flattened out on the nest and watched us 
anxiously. She flushed when we were about six feet away and after we had stood still 
for several seconds conversing in whispers upon the color pattern of the back and the 
lack of a decided yellow streak over the eye. The bird slipped off the nest with no trace 
of commotion, and ran, or rather sneaked away, using 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 passer-by 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 characteristic way of leaving it. The male could be heard 
uttering a faint insect-like chip from some clod or small ridge nearby, but he was very 
shy and kept circling the nest at a distance. 
The nest was built entirely of fine dead weed stalks loosely pressed together. I 
have been able to identify some of the stalks as of wild oat and salt grass, but the ma- 
jority are not identifiable. It was well lined with fine dry grass and grass-seed heads 
frazzled out, there being no feathers, fur or other animal matter. 
The outside dimensions of the nest were, horizontally, 125 mm. (5% inches) by 113 
mm. (5 inches), with a depth of 43 mm. (2*4 inches). The inner cavity measured 69 
mm. (3% inches) by 63 mm. (3 inches), with a depth of 30 mm. (1% inches). 
Incubation was from one-third to one-half completed in the four eggs, on April 14. 
The egg-shells have a ground color almost white with only a suggestion of blue. The 
individual markings on the eggs average about a square millimeter in area and are 
arranged in a band from three to five millimeters wide around the more central part of 
the egg. The position of this band is much nearer to the center of the egg than it is to 
the large end. This seems to be a good distinguishing character for the eggs of the 
Grasshopper Sparrow. The under-shell markings are a pale violet-plumbeous, while the 
brighter surface spots are about hazel. One egg has been cracked in transit and the 
others measure in millimeters as follows: 18.3x15.7; 18.8x14.6; 17.5x14.7. 
The female bird was secured as she left the nest and is now no. 25866 in the collec- 
tion of the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The male and eggs with nest were 
secured also, the male being no. 25865, while the nest with eggs is numbered 1617. 
A female Savannah Sparrow (in migration of course) was secured within a few 
feet of the nest of the Grasshopper Sparrow. Several other pairs of Grasshopper Spar- 
rows were seen or heard in this one salt grass patch, but their presence was certainly 
outside the regular order of things as none had been observed about this place during 
the fifteen or twenty years previous to this date. 
On June 29, 1915, a male Mexican Ground Dove (Chaemepelia passerina pallescens) 
in full breeding plumage and actions was observed by my brother, J. B. Dixon. This 
bird frequented a stretch of marshy, willow-grown river bottom about three miles north 
of town. His intense cooing attracted attention, and he is now no. 25862 in the Cali- 
fornia Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. 
•Tune 30, 1915, revealed the first California Cuckoo ( Coccyzus americanus occiden- 
talis) that we had observed in San Diego County. This was a female which was mis- 
taken for a small hawk as it dashed through a willow thicket where there were young 
chickens. The cuckoo call had been heard several days previously to this, and the spe- 
cimen (now no. 25863, Mus. Vert. Zook), had the bare flabby abdomen of a brooding 
bird. Another (male?) bird was heard a few days later and several weeks later imma- 
ture Cuckoos were seen and heard calling in the willows. — Joseph Dixox, Berkeley, 
California. 
