The eggs of the Song Sparrow are five in number, and have an average measurement of .82 by .60 of an inch. They have a ground of a clay-color or dirty white, and are spotted equally over the entire egg with blotches of a rusty-brown, intermingled with lighter shades of purple. In some these markings are so numerous and confluent as to entirely conceal the ground-color; in others they are irregularly diffused over different parts, leaving patches unmarked. Occasionally the eggs are unspotted, and are then not unlike those of _Leucosticte griseinucha_. Melospiza melodia, var. fallax, BAIRD. WESTERN SONG SPARROW. _Zonotrichia fallax_, BAIRD, Pr. A. N. Sc. Ph. VII, June, 1854, 119 (Pueblo Creek, New Mexico). _? Zonotrichia fasciata_, (GM.) GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. 2d Series, I, 1847, 49. _Melospiza fallax_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 481, pl. xxvii, f. 2.—KENNERLY, P. R. R. X, _b._ pl. xxvii, f. 2.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 215. SP. CHAR. Similar to var. _melodia_, but with the bill on the whole rather smaller, more slender, and darker. Legs quite dusky, not yellow. Entire plumage of a more grayish cast, including the whole superciliary stripe. The streaks on throat and jugulum in spring are almost black, as in _melodia_; in autumn more rufous; in all cases quite as sharply defined as in _melodia_. The bill is nearly black in spring. HAB. Middle Province of United States, to the Sierra Nevada. This race, intermediate between _melodia_ and _heermanni_ in habitat, is, however, hardly so in characters. The bill is more slender than in either, being much like that of _guttata_, and the tail is longer in proportion to the wing. In colors it is paler than either, the ground-cast above being nearly clear grayish: the streaks, both on the back and jugulum, are more sparse, as well as narrower; very frequently, in the winter plumage, those beneath lack the central black, being wholly rufous; such is the case with the type. In summer, however, they are frequently entirely black, the external rufous having entirely disappeared. As in _heermanni_, the rump is immaculate. The young bird differs as does the adult, though the resemblance to those of _melodia_ and _heermanni_ is more close than in the adult. The very narrow bill and long tail are the most characteristic features of form. HABITS. In habits and song, Dr. Cooper can find no appreciable differences between this variety and its nearest allies. He states that its nest, which he found in a willow thicket, was composed of bark and fine twigs and grass, and lined with hair. Its eggs he describes as bluish-white, blotched and streaked with reddish-brown, and as measuring .74 by .55 of an inch.