A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2. Robert Ridgway

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Spizella pallida, BonapCLAY-COLORED SPARROW

      Emberiza pallida, Sw. F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 251 (not of Audubon). Spizella pallida, Bonap. List, 1838.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 474. Spinites pallidus, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 133. Emberiza shattucki, Aud. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 347, pl. ccccxciii. Spizella shattucki, Bonap. Conspectus, 1850, 480.

      Sp. Char. Smaller than S. socialis. Back and sides of hind neck ashy. Prevailing color above pale brownish-yellow, with a tinge of grayish. The feathers of back and crown streaked conspicuously with blackish. Crown with a median pale ashy and a lateral or superciliary ashy-white stripe. Beneath whitish, tinged with brown on the breast and sides, and an indistinct narrow brown streak on the edge of the chin, cutting off a light stripe above it. Ear-coverts brownish-yellow, margined above and below by dark brown, making three dark stripes on the face. Bill reddish, dusky towards tip. Legs yellow. Length, 4.75; wing, 2.55.

      Hab. Upper Missouri River and high central plains to the Saskatchewan country. Cape St. Lucas, Oaxaca, March (Scl. 1859, 379); Fort Mohave (Cooper, P. A. N. S. Cal. 1861, 122); San Antonio, Texas, spring (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 489; common).

      The ashy collar is quite conspicuous, and streaked above with brown. The rump is immaculate. The streaks on the feathers of the crown almost form continuous lines, about six in number. The brown line above the ear-coverts is a post-ocular one. That on the side of the chin forms the lower border of a white maxillary stripe which widens and curves around behind the ear-coverts, fading into the ashy of the neck. The wing-feathers are all margined with paler, and there is an indication of two light bands across the ends of the coverts.

      The young of this species is thickly streaked beneath over the throat, breast, and belly, with brown, giving to it an entirely different appearance from the adult. The streaks in the upper parts, too, are darker and more conspicuous. The margins of the feathers are rather more rusty.

      This species is readily distinguishable from the other American Spizellas, except S. breweri (which see), in the dark streaks and median ashy stripe on the crown, the paler tints, the dark line on the side of the chin, etc.

      Habits. The Clay-colored Bunting was first discovered by Richardson, and described by Swainson, in the Fauna Bor.-Amer. The only statement made in regard to it is that it visited the Saskatchewan in considerable numbers, frequented the farm-yard at Carlton House, and was in all respects as familiar and confiding as the common House Sparrow of Europe.

      The bird given by Mr. Audubon as the pallida has been made by Mr. Cassin a different species, S. breweri, and the species the former gives in his seventh volume of the Birds of America as Emberiza shattucki is really this species. It was found by Mr. Audubon’s party to the Yellowstone quite abundant throughout the country bordering upon the Upper Missouri. It seemed to be particularly partial to the small valleys found, here and there, along the numerous ravines running from the interior and between the hills. Its usual demeanor is said to greatly resemble that of the common Chipping Sparrow, and, like that bird, it has a very monotonous ditty, which it seems to delight to repeat constantly, while its mate is more usefully employed in the duties of incubation. When it was approached, it would dive and conceal itself amid the low bushes around, or would seek one of the large clusters of wild roses so abundant in that section. The nest of this species is mentioned as having been usually placed on a small horizontal branch seven or eight feet from the ground, and occasionally in the broken and hollow branches of trees. These nests are also stated to have been formed of slender grasses, but in so slight a manner as, with their circular lining of horse or cattle hair, to resemble as much as possible the nest of the common socialis. The eggs were five in number, and are described as being blue with reddish-brown spots. These birds were also met with at the Great Slave Lake region by Mr. Kennicott, in the same neighborhood by B. R. Ross and J. Lockhart, and in the Red River settlements by Mr. C. A. Hubbard and Mr. Donald Gunn.

      Captain Blakiston noted the arrival of this bird at Fort Carlton on the 21st of May. He speaks of its note as very peculiar, resembling, though sharper than, the buzzing made by a fly in a paper box, or a faint imitation of the sound of a watchman’s rattle. This song it utters perched on some young tree or bush, sometimes only once, at others three or four times in quick succession.

      Their nests appear to have been in all instances placed in trees or in shrubs, generally in small spruces, two or three feet from the ground. In one instance it was in a clump of small bushes not more than six inches from the ground, and only a few rods from the buildings of Fort Resolution.

      Both this species and the S. breweri were found by Lieutenant Couch at Tamaulipas in March, 1855. It does not appear to have been met with by any other of the exploring expeditions, but in 1864, for the first time, as Dr. Heermann states, to his knowledge, these birds were found quite plentiful near San Antonio, Texas, by Mr. Dresser. This was in April, in the fields near that town. They were associating with the Melospiza lincolni and other Sparrows. They remained about San Antonio until the middle of May, after which none were observed.

      The eggs of this species are of a light blue, with a slight tinge of greenish, and are marked around the larger end with spots and blotches of a purplish-brown, rather finer, perhaps, than in the egg of S. socialis, though very similar to it. They average .70 of an inch in length, and vary in breadth from .50 to .52 of an inch.

Spizella pallida, var. breweri, CassinBREWER’S SPARROW

      Emberiza pallida, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 66, pl. cccxcviii, f. 2.—Ib. Synopsis, 1839.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 71, pl. clxi (not of Swainson, 1831). Spizella breweri, Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. VIII, Feb. 1856, 40.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 475.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 209.

      Sp. Char. Similar to S. pallida; the markings including the nuchal collar more obsolete; no distinct median and superciliary light stripes. The crown streaked with black. Some of the feathers on the sides with brown shafts. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.50. Young streaked beneath, as in pallida.

      Hab. Rocky Mountains of United States to the Pacific coast.

      This race is very similar to the S. pallida, and requires close and critical comparison to separate it. The streaks on the back are narrower, and the central ashy and lateral whitish stripes of the crown are scarcely, if at all, appreciable. The clear unstreaked ash of the back of the neck, too, is mostly wanting. The feathers along the sides of the body, near the tibia, and occasionally elsewhere on the sides, have brownish shafts, not found in the other. The differences are perhaps those of race, rather than of species, though they are very appreciable.

      Habits. This species bears a very close resemblance to the S. pallida in its external appearance, but there are certain constant differences which, with the peculiarities of their distinctive distributions and habits, seem to establish their specific separation. The present bird is found from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains, and from the northern portion of California to the Rio Grande and Mexico. Dr. Kennerly found it in February, 1854, throughout New Mexico, from the Rio Grande to the Great Colorado, along the different streams, where it was feeding upon the seeds of several kinds of weeds.

      Dr. Heermann, while accompanying the surveying party of Lieutenant Williamson, between the 32d. and 35th parallels, found these Sparrows throughout his entire route, both in California and in Texas. On the passage from the Pimos villages to Tucson he observed large flocks gleaning their food among the bushes as they were moving southward. In the Tejon valley, during the fall season, he was constantly meeting them associated with large flocks of other species of Sparrows, congregated around the cultivated fields of the Indians, where they find a bountiful supply of seeds. For this purpose they pass the greater part of the time upon the ground.

      Dr. Woodhouse also met with this Sparrow throughout New СКАЧАТЬ