SPIZELLA. 379: 
A common species throughout the central portion of North America, from the 
Saskatchewan, where it was discovered by Richardson, southwards through Texas, 
to the highlands of Southern Mexico, its place being taken in the Western and 
South-western States, as well as in North-western Mexico, by the closely allied 8. 
breweri. | 
The Mexican specimens we have seen all seem to be in winter plumage, and it is 
most probable that the bird is present in Mexico only in the winter season, and that it 
migrates thence northwards in spring to its breeding-quarters. Of its occurrence 
within our territory we have nothing but the bare record of localities. 
The nesting-habits of S. pallida are described in the ‘ History of North American 
Birds’’. The nest is placed in a tree or shrub, two or three feet from the ground, 
sometimes more, and is loosely made of grasses, and lined with hair. The eggs are 
light blue tinged with green and marked round the larger end with spots and blotches 
of purplish brown. 
4, Spizella breweri. 
Spizella breweri, Cass. Pr. Ac. Phil. 1856, p. 40°; Baird, Mex. Bound. Surv. u1.,. Birds, p. 16’; 
Belding, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. vi. p. 343°; Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. ‘3814, 
Spizella pallida var. breweri, Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. N. Am. B.i. p. 13°. 
S. pallide similis, sed striis corporis supra angustioribus, iis capitis summi undique dispersis, vitta mediana 
pallida nulla. 
Hab. Norru America, 8.W. States, New Mexico!, Arizona *®.—Mexico, Boca Grande 
| (Kennerly 2), Guaymas (Belding ®), Ciudad in Durango (Forrer). 
A specimen sent us by Mr. Forrer from the State of Durango certainly belongs to 
this race of 8. pallida, and the bird has also been noticed within our fauna by Kennerly 
at Boca Grande, and by Mr. Belding at Guaymas. 
The characters by which S. breweri is distinguished from S. pallida seem to be fairly 
definite, the uniform striation of the crown at once rendering it easily recognized. In 
S. pallida the crown has dark sides where the striations are concentrated, leaving a 
light central streak which passes from the forehead to the nape. 
Nothing is recorded of S. brewert in Mexico beyond localities where it has been 
‘found. In the States it is familiar to most of the ornithologists who have worked 
between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, in California, and southwards 
through Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Mr. Ridgway, who observed it in 
numbers at Sacramento and elsewhere, speaks highly of its powers of song, which he 
says fully equal those of the Canary. The eggs are described as marked and blotched 
with scattered markings of a golden-brown colour, these blotches being larger and more 
conspicuous than in the eggs of any other allied species °. 
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