Habits, Nests, and Eggs of Genas 
Paeserella. C.E. Bendire. 
I. Passerella iliaca (Merr.), Fox Sparrow. 
Regarding the breeding habits of Passerella iliaca , the hand- 
some and well-known Fox Sparrow, familiar to all eastern 
ornithologists during its migrations, I am unfortunately unable to 
add anything that is new, from personal observations, and I can- 
not find any positive records in the bird literature accessible to 
me that its nests and eggs have been taken by collectors within 
recent years. It does not appear to breed within the limits of the 
United States excepting in the Territory of Alaska. In addition 
to the authorities' given by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway in their 
‘History of North American Birds,’ Vol. II, pages 50 to 53 inclu- 
sive, Mr. M. Harvey states in ‘Forest and Stream,’ Vol. VII, p. 
99, that it breeds in Newfoundland, where it is called Hedge 
Sparrow, sometimes building its nest on the ground, and some- 
times in bushes. 
Mr. M. Abbott Frazar saw a pair at Hegaska, Labrador, in 
August, 1884, with their young, and Mr. Ernest E. T. Seton in 
his list on the birds of Manitoba in ‘The Auk,’ Vol. Ill, July, 
iS 86, p. 324, writes that it breeds abundantly on Duck Mountain, 
Manitoba, but says nothing about taking their nests and eggs. 
Col. N. S. Goss tells me that he found these birds breeding on 
Bryon Isle, one of the Magdalen group in the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence in July, 1S79 or 18S0, but he was too late for eggs, they 
having then fully fledged young. It appears to be abundant during 
the breeding season throughout the greater portion of British 
North America, reaching well up to the Arctic Circle. 
According to Mr. Robert McFarlane the Fox Sparrow nests on 
the ground as well as in low trees and bushes. Eggs of this 
species were taken at Moose Factory, Hudson Bay Territory, as 
early as June 2, i860, and at Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, 
June 1, 1864. Most of the nests found by Mr. McFarlane were 
placed in low bushes, a foot or two from the ground ; in one 
instance a nest of this species was found in a small tree eight feet 
up. File nests are constructed out of coarse dry grasses exter- 
nally, lined with finer material of the same kind, as well as hair, 
moss, and feathers. A nest now before me, No. 4411, National 
Museum collection, collected by C. Drexler at Moose Factory, 
June 2, i860, containing four fresh eggs, was placed in a pine 
bush, two feet up, and well concealed from view. On the outside 
this nest is five inches wide, by three inches deep, inside three 
inches wide by two inches in depth. 
Sir John Richardson states that the eggs are five in number, of 
a pale, mountain-green tint, and marbled with irregular spots of 
brown. Judging from the records here, I am inclined to believe 
that four eggs usually completes a set, and that five is rather an 
exceptional number. In the eggs of this species before me, $6 
in number, the ground color appears to be a pale bluish as well 
as grayish green in some cases, which undoubtedly has faded to a 
certain extent. This ground color is occasionally almost entirely 
hidden and overlain by a uniform brownish suffusion of different 
degrees of intensity ranging from Prout’s to chocolate brown (see 
Ridgway’s ‘Nomenclature of Colors’), giving such eggs an evenly 
colored appearance resembling somewhat the darker colored 
phases or types found most commonly in the eggs of Calcarius 
lapponicus. About ten per cent show this pattern. Eggs in 
which the ground color is plainly and readily perceptible, are 
irregularly blotched and speckled to a greater or less extent with 
various shades of chocolate, umber, and Vandyke brown, ecru 
drab, cinnamon rufous, and lilac gray. The difference in these, 
eggs, as regards their markings, is very great, scarcely any two 
out of different nests being exactly alike. The largest egg in the 
number before me measures 1.00 X .68 inch, the smallest .80 X 
.61 inch. The average is .80 X .63 inch. 
The distribution of the Fox Sparrow during its migrations is 
well enough known, as well as its general habits while with us as 
a winter visitor. I took a single specimen, a female, on Oct. 8, 
1885, at Fort Custer, Montana, which I believe marks about the 
western limit of its range, during its migration. The specimen 
showed scarcely any trace of rufous, but was, on examination by 
Mr. Robert Ridgway, referred by him to this species. It is now 
in the collection of Mr. Manly Hardy, Brewer, Maine. 
Auk, VI. April, 1889. p. /0 7'/0*f. 
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