592 NORTH AilERICAN BIRDS. 



fellow," regardless of the bitter wind, from the top of a yeUow mimosa then 

 in bloom, give utterance to a strain of sprightly and sweet notes, that would 

 compare favorably with those of mam' more famed songsters. 



Dr. Coues found this Sparrow very abundant in the southern and western 

 portions of Arizona, though rare at Fort Whipple, where the locality was 

 unsuited to it, as it seemed to prefer open plains, grassy or co\ered with sage- 

 brush. 



Mr. J. H. Clarke, wlio met with these birds in Tamaulipas, Texas, and 

 New Mexico, speaks of them as abundant and widely distributed. He 

 found them on the lower Rio (xrande, but more abundantly in the interior, 

 seeming to prefer the stunted and sparse vegetation of the sand-hills and 

 dry plains to the Cottonwood groves and willow thickets of the river val- 

 leys, w here they were never seen. They would be very inconspicuous did 

 not the male occa.sionally ])erch himself on some topmost branch and jjour 

 forth a continuous strain of music. In tlie more barren regions they were 

 the almost exclusive representatives of the feathered triljes. 



Dr. Heermann first remark(!d this Finch near Tucson, in Arizona, where he 

 found it associated with other Sparrows in large flocks. They were flying 

 from bush to bush, alighting on the ground to pick up grass-seeds and in- 

 sects. They were quite numerous, and he traced them as far into Texas as 

 the Dead Man's Hole, between EI Paso and San Antonio. 



Dr. Cooper found a few of these birds on the treeless and waterless moun- 

 tains that border the Colorado Valley, in pairs or in small companies, hopping 

 along the ground, under the scanty shrubbery. In crossing the Providence 

 Eange, in May, Dr. Cooper found their nest, containing white eggs. 



Both sjiecies of Poospiza, the belli and the hilineata, according to Mr. 

 Kidgway, are entirely peculiar in tiieir manners, habits, and notes. Both, he 

 states, are birds characteristic of the arid artemisia plains of the Great Basin, 

 and, with the Ercmophila cornuia, are often the only birds met witli on those 

 desert wastes. The two sjjecies, he adds, are tpiite unlike in their habits and 

 manners. They each have about the same extent of liabitat, and even often 

 freijuent the same locality. While tiie P. hilineata is partial to dry sandy 

 situations, inhabiting generally the arid mesa extending from the river \al- 

 leys back to the mountains, the P. belli is almost confined to the more 

 thrifty gi'owth of the artemisia, as found in the damper valley portions. 

 The P. belli is a resident species, and even through tlie severest winters is 

 found in abundance. The P. bilineata is exclusively a summer bird, one of 

 the latest to come from the. South, and much the more shy of tlie two; 

 its manners also are quite different. 



Both birds have one common characteristic, which renders them wortliy 

 of especial remark. This is the peculiar delivery and accent, and the strange 

 sad tone of their spring song, which, though unassuming and simple, is in- 

 deed strange in the effect it produces. This song, so plaintive and mournful, 

 harmonizes with the dull monotony of the desert landscape. 



