Scott's Sparrow 385 



This Sparrow has only recently been detected in Colorado. Warren 

 took a single female near Springfield in Baca co. in the south-eastern 

 part of the State, May 27th, 1905. As its breast was bare of feathers 

 he considered it might be incubating. That it does breed in the 

 State is confirmed by Hersey and Rockwell, who found a nest near Barr 

 in Adams co., on July 14th, 1907, and subsequently observed several 

 other examples of this species. It is probably not uncommon through- 

 out the dry plains of the eastern part of the State. 



Habits. — Cassin's Sparrow is typically a bird of the 

 arid plains dotted with mesquite, grass and low bushes. 

 It is shy and retiring, but the niale, in the breeding 

 season at least, is one of the sweetest of songsters. It 

 sometimes sings from a perch, but more often it rises 

 in the air some twenty feet or more, then hovers and 

 drops back on to its perch. Hersey and Rockwell found 

 the nest well concealed in low rabbit-brush {Gutierrezia), 

 and only visible from straight above ; it was placed in 

 the bush but rested on the gromid, and was constructed 

 of dry grass-stems and strips of bark, and lined with 

 finer material of the same kind. The nest was rather 

 deeply cupped and slightly rimmed in. The eggs, four 

 in number, were pure crystalline white and rather pointed ; 

 they average "78 x "57. 



Genus AIMOPHILA. 



Small, Sparrow-like birds resembhng Peuccpa, but with a still shorter 

 and more rounded wing, the ninth (outer) primary being shorter than 

 the third and the tail always longer than the wing. Edge of the wing 

 not yellow. 



An extensive gemxs, with which Peuccca is merged by Ridgway, 

 ranging over south-western United States and Mexico to Costa Rica, 

 chiefly at high elevations in the south. One species only is a straggler 

 to Colorado. 



Scott's Sparrow. Aimophila ruficeps scotti. 



A.O.U. Checkhst no 580a— Colorado Record— Howell 05, p. 210. 



Description. — Male — Above dark chestnut-brown, more rufous on 

 the crown, all the feathers edged with ashy-grey ; the rump and sides 

 of the head nearly pure ashy-grey ; tail and wings pale dusky, edged 



BB 



