Nests elaborate and symmetrical, cup-shaped, composed of thin grass-stems, but externally chiefly of grass-blades and strips of thin inner bark. Diameter about 3.50 inches; internal diameter 2.00, and internal depth 1.50; external, 2.00. Egg measures .78 by .62; regularly ovate in shape; ground-color, greenish-white; this is thickly sprinkled with purplish and livid ashy-brown, the specks larger, and somewhat coalescent, around the larger circumference. (3553, San Francisco, Cal., J. Hepburn.) Melospiza melodia, var. guttata, BAIRD. OREGON SONG SPARROW. _Fringilla cinerea_, (GM.) AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 22, pl. cccxc.—IB. Syn. 1839, 119.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 145, pl. clxxxvii. _Passerella cinerea_, BP. List, 1839.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 477. _Fringilla (Passerella) guttata_, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 581. _Zonotrichia guttata_, GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. I, Dec. 1847, 50. _Melospiza rufina_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 480.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 204.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1859, 285.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 214. SP. CHAR. Bill slender. Similar in general appearance to _M. melodia_, but darker and much more rufous, and without any blackish-brown streaks, or grayish edges of the feathers; generally the colors more blended. General appearance above light rufous-brown, the interscapular region streaked very obsoletely with dark brownish-rufous, the feathers of the crown similar, with still darker obsolete central streaks. A superciliary and very indistinct median crown-stripe ashy. Under parts dull white, the breast and sides of throat and body broadly streaked with dark brownish-rufous; darker in the centre. A light maxillary stripe. Sides of the body and anal region tinged strongly with the colors of the rump. Under coverts brown. Length, 6.75; wing, 2.70; tail, 3.00. Legs rather darker than in _melodia_. Bill from nostril, .37; from forehead, .60. HAB. Pacific coast of the United States to British Columbia. A young bird from Napa Valley, Cal. (12,912, Colonel A. J. Grayson), probably referrible to this race, differs from the corresponding stage of _heermanni_, _fallax_, and _melodia_ in the following respects: the ground-color above is much darker, being dull dingy-brown, and the dusky streaks broader; the white beneath has a strong yellowish tinge, and the pectoral streaks are very broad. HABITS. Dr. Cooper characterizes this species as the most northern and mountain-frequenting representative of the Song Sparrows, being a resident of the higher Sierra Nevada and on the borders of the evergreen forests towards the Columbia, and thence northward, where it is the only species of this genus, and where it is common down to the level of the sea. Specimens have been obtained at Marysville in the spring, by Mr. Gruber.