THE DESERT SPARROW. 115 



edging on wing. Length of adults about 5.35 ( I35-9J ; wing 2.55 (65); tail 

 2.48 (63) : bill .40 ( 10) ; tarsus .75 (19). 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size ; grayish coloration ; strong white super- 

 ciliary ; black thr(.iat distinctive. 



Nesting. — Xot yet reported from Washington. "Nest in bushes, slight and 

 frail, close to the ground: eggs 2-5, 0.72 .x 0.58 (18.3 x 14.7), white with a pale 

 greenish or blui-^h tinge, unmarked; laid in May, June and later" (Coues). 



General Range. — Arid districts of southwestern United States and north- 

 western Mexico west from western Texas to California north probably to southern 

 Idaho and ^\^ashington ; south, in winter to Chihuahua, Sonora and Lower 

 California. 



Range in Washington. — Probably summer resident in LIpper Sonoran and 

 Arid Transition life-zones; believed to be recently invading State from south. 



Authority. — Dawson, Auk, A'ol. XX\'. Oct. 1908, p. 483. 



IF one happens to be fairly well acquainted with the licensed musicians 

 of the sage, the presence oi a strange voice in the morning chorus is as 

 noticeable as a scarlet golf jacket at church. Tlie morning light was gilding 

 the cool gray of a sage-covered hillside in Douglas County, on the 31st day of 

 May, 1908, and the bird-man was mechanically checking of¥ tlie members 

 of the desert choir. Brewer Sparrow, Lark Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow and 

 the rest, as they reported for duty, ofie by one, when suddenly a fresh voice 

 of inquiry. Blew dice tec tee, burst from the sage at a stone's cast. The 

 binoculars were instantl\- levelled and their use alternated rapidly with that 

 of note-book and pencil as the leading features of the stranger's dress were 

 seized upon in order of saliency : Black chin and throat w^ith rounded 

 extension on chest outlined against whitish of underparts and separated 

 from grayish dusky of cheeks by white malar stripe; lores, apparently includ- 

 ing eye, black; brilliant white superciliary stripe; crown and back warm 

 light brown. 



The newcomer was a male Desert Sparrow and the interest aroused by 

 his appearance was considerabl\- heightened when it was recalled that he was 

 venturing some ti\e hundred miles north of his fiu'thest previously recorded 

 range. This bird, probably the saiue individual, was seen and heard on 

 several occasions subsecpient thruout a stretch of half a mile bordering on 

 Brook Lake. Once a female was glimpsed in companv with her liege lord, 

 flitting- ciiquettishly from bush to bush; but the inost diligent search failed 

 to discover a nest, if such there was. Nesting w-as most certainly on the 

 gallant's mind for he sang at faithful intervals. The notes of his brief but 

 musical (iffering had something of the gushing and tinkling quality of a 

 Lark Sparrow's. A variant form, zi'hczv, K'/n'tc, zvliitcrer, began nicely but 

 degenerated in the last member into the luetallic clicking of Towdiee. 



\\'e ha\'e here, in all probabilit}-, another and a \'ery conspicuous example 



