of their nests. One was in a willow, close against the tree, and three feet from the ground, containing, on the 11th of May, four eggs partially hatched. This was built of coarse dry stems and leaves, lined with finer grasses and horse-hair. It was five inches in external diameter, and four high. The cavity was two and a half inches deep and two in diameter. These eggs had a ground of greenish-white, and were blotched and spotted with a purplish-brown, chiefly at the larger end. They were .82 by .62 of an inch in measurement. The ground-color was paler and the spots were darker than in eggs of Z. gambeli, the whole coloring much darker than in those of M. fallax. This nest was apparently an old one used for a second brood.
Another nest found as late as July 10, and doubtless a second brood, was in a thicket, six feet from the ground, and also contained four eggs. Dr. Cooper states that he has seen the newly fledged young by the 7th of May.
Dr. Heermann, in his account of this bird, which he supposed to be the guttata of Dr. Gambel, states that he found it abundant throughout the whole country over which he passed, and more especially so in the bushes bordering the streams, ponds, and marshes. Its notes, sweet, and few in number, resembled those of the common Song Sparrow. Its nests, usually built in thick tufts of bushes, were composed externally of grasses and lined with hair, and contained each four eggs, with a pale bluish-ash ground, thickly covered with dashes of burnt umber. Eggs of this species, from near Monterey, collected by Dr. Canfield, vary in measurement from .85 by .65 of an inch to .88 by .70,—larger than any eggs of Melospiza melodia that I have seen. Their ground-color is a light green. The blotches are large, distinct, and more or less confluent, and of a blended reddish and purplish brown. They are in some diffused over the entire egg, in others disposed around the larger end.
Melospiza melodia, var. samuelis, Baird.
SAMUELS’S SONG SPARROW.
Ammodromus samuelis, Baird, Pr. Boston Soc. N. H. VI, June, 1858, 381.—Ib. Birds N. Am. 1858, 455, pl. lxxi, f. 1.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 191. Melospiza gouldi, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 479.
Sp. Char. Somewhat like Melospiza melodia, but considerably smaller and darker. Bill slender and acute, the depth not more than half the culmen. Above streaked on the head, back, and rump with dark brown, the borders of the feathers paler, but without any rufous. Beneath pure white; the breast, with sides of throat and body, spotted and streaked with black, apparently farther back than on other species. Wings above nearly uniform dark brownish-rufous. Under tail-coverts yellowish-brown, conspicuously blotched with blackish. An ashy superciliary stripe, becoming nearly white to the bill, and a whitish maxillary one below which is a broad blackish stripe along the sides of neck; the crown with faint grayish median line. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.20; tail, 2.35. Bill dusky; legs rather pale. Bill, .35 from nostril by .24 deep; tarsus, .71; middle toe without claw, .58. (5,553 ♂, Petaluma, Cal.)
Hab. Coast region of California, near San Francisco.
The above description is of a specimen in worn summer plumage, when the markings have not the sharp definition seen in the autumnal plumage. The autumnal plumage is as follows: Ground-color above grayish-olive, outer surface of wings, with the crown, more rufous; crown with narrow, and dorsal region with broad, stripes of black, the latter with scarcely a perceptible rufous suffusion; crown with a distinct median stripe of ashy. Streaks on jugulum, etc., broader than in the type, and with a slight rufous suffusion. Wing, 2.20; tail, 2.35; bill from nostril .31, its depth .22; tarsus .74; middle toe without claw, .60.
The type of Melospiza gouldi resembles the last, and differs only in having a more distinct rufous suffusion to the black markings; the measurements are as follows: Wing, 2.20; tail, 2.35; bill, .33 by .23; tarsus, .73; middle toe without claw, .59.