Marshall, 1939 melospiza melodia a 9. San Pablo Cr., Contra Costa Co., Calif. Dec 14 (tangles & willows) within 150 yds. 3 or 4 thurs seen, a few singing. A good population along the stream, here where tangles of vine & shrubbery were abundant under the willows, live oaks, and buckeye. None up side-creeks, where no undergrowth. Foraged on ground among under this shrubby. Seemingly require one thing - dense cover of plant growth on damp ground which can forage or damd. This requirement is met both in the vine tangles along the creek and in the tules at the marsh. Thus there is here an element common to both marsh & riparian habitats which is the critical one for the song sparrow - altho outwardly, the two habitats seem tremendously different. The food must be different, the nesting & song sites also, but the general type of forage cover must be about the same in each case (with respect to the song sparrow, at least).