rox sparrow: western mountain 1431 



The fox sparrow is an infrequent victim of the brown-headed cowbird. Only 

 in one place has anyone considered it a common host; Saunders (1911, p. 40) wrote 

 that in Gallatin County, Montana, "Mr. Thomas found the eggs and young quite 

 commonly in the nests of the Slate-colored Sparrow." Ridgway (18S7, p. 501) 

 recorded a parasitized nest at Parley's Park, Wasatch Mountains, Utah, on July 

 23, 1S69. The late H. J. Bowles wrote me years ago that a friend of his collected 

 several sets of fox sparrow eggs with cowbird eggs near Spokane, Washington. 

 Bendire (1889, p. 113) noted a cowbird's egg in a fox sparrow's nest at Palouse Falls, 

 southeastern Washington, on June 18, 1878. Street (Houston and Street, 1959, 

 p. 176) found another parasitized nest at Nipawin, Saskatchewan. H.B. Hurley 

 (in litt.) found a nest with 2 eggs of the sparrow and 1 of the cowbird, five miles 

 southeast of Sesters, Deschutes County, Oregon, on May 16, 1960. In the 

 collections of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History there is a para- 

 sitized set of eggs collected on June 9, 1922, at Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, 

 California. 



These few records are all that I have noted. They refer to the northwestern 

 race of the cowbird, M.a.artemisiae, and to the following races of the fox sparrow: 

 zaboria in Saskatchewan; olivacea in Washington; schistacea in Gallatin County, 

 Montana; swarthi in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah; fulva in Oregon; and mono- 

 ensis in Mono County, California. 



Winter. — Grinnell and Miller (1944) describe the California winter 

 habitats of these races as follows: 



schistacea (and olivacea): "inland chaparral, prevailingly of some- 

 what arid character, as with other races that winter in the interior." 

 julva: "chaparral, as with other winter visitant races." 

 megarhyncha: "chaparral of semi-arid type is occupied." 

 brevicauda: "fairly dry chaparral, especially on ridges and on canyon 

 slopes near the coast." 



Distribution 



Slate-colored Fox Sparrow (P. i. schistacea) 



Range. — Southeastern British Columbia and southwestern Alberta 

 south to northern Baja California, southern Arizona, and western 

 Texas. 



Breeding range. — The slate-colored fox sparrow breeds from south- 

 eastern British Columbia (Crowsnest Pass) and southwestern Alberta 

 (Water ton Lakes Park) south through the mountains of northern 

 Idaho (Glidden Lakes), north-central and eastern Oregon (Cascade 

 Mountains south to Warm Springs; Howard; Wallowa Mountains), 

 and western Montana (Judith River, Red Lodge), to north-central and 

 northeastern Nevada (Pine Forest Mountains; 10 miles northeast of 

 San Jacinto), southwestern Wyoming (Fort Bridger), and central 

 Colorado (Cochetopa Creek). 



Winter range. — Winters from northern interior California (Paine 

 Creek), central Arizona (Hualpai Mountains, Natanes Plateau), and 

 northern New Mexico (Manzano Mountains, Las Vegas) south through 

 southern California (rarely to coastal districts; Alameda, San Nicolas 



