WESTERN BIRDS Sparrow 



With regret I record that the Western Chipping Spar- 

 row is not so friendly, nor common, as is his eastern 

 cousin. In the foothills and mesas of southern Cali- 

 fornia the birds are residents and nest about the homes, 

 but in the valleys they appear in many places as winter 

 visitors, only. In January and later I often have them 

 in my yard and their trill-song is heard, but with the 

 spring months they depart and are not common in this 

 locality. 



GENUS SPIZELLA: BREWER'S 

 SPARROW. 



Brewer's Sparrow: Spizella breweri. 

 FAMILY— FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



In western North America, breeding in the United 

 States in east central Montana, and northwestern Ne- 

 braska, southwestern Texas, southern Arizona, west along 

 the Pacific Coast is found the Brewer Sparrow, locally 

 known as Sagebrush Chippy because of his fondness for 

 the arid regions, where grows most abundantly the sage. 

 However, these birds also frequent the sage-covered 

 slopes of the mountains, going as high as 8,400 feet, 

 where Mrs. Bailey found them singing on the snowy 

 crest of the Sierra. Below, however, on the sunny slope 

 grew the inevitable sage. In the fall many of them go 

 down into the valleys, perhaps on their way farther 

 south, and in small flocks come into our gardens, where 

 they spend their time eating weed seeds. 



In size and plumage they quite resemble the Chipping 

 Sparrow, especially in its winter plumage, having rufous 

 crowns which are divided by a lighter line, the same 

 buffy stripe edging the crown patch above the eye. 

 There is a suggestion of a dark cheek-patch and a black 



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