MOUNTAIN SONG SPARROW 1525 



central Florida (Enterprise), and southwestern Virginia (Blacksburg) ; 

 casually to Manitoba (Burnside) and southern Arizona (Tucson). 

 Accidental on Banks Island, Franklin District. 



MELOSPIZA MELODIA MONTANA Henshaw 



Mountain Song Sparrow 

 Contributed by Val Nolan Jr. 



Habits 



This is the breeding subspecies of most of the Rocky Mountains 

 of the United States, from the states bordering Canada to those 

 adjoining Mexico. Although it may nest at least as high as 9,000 

 feet (Betts, 1912), the song sparrow is replaced in the Canadian life 

 zone by the congeneric Lincoln's sparrow and is ordinarily found at 

 somewhat lower altitudes. In Yellowstone, for example, Milton 

 Skinner (1925) foimd montana only up to 6,500 feet. At the other 

 extreme, some individuals breed on the plains of Colorado at the 

 eastern edge of the mountains (W. W. Cooke, 1897; Niedrach and 

 Rockwell, 1939). 



The habitat of montana is water-edge vegetation, whether it be 

 in marshes around mountain lakes as at Lake Tahoe, Nev. (W. W. 

 Price in Barlow, 1901), in streamside willows as in eastern Oregon 

 (Peck, 1911), or in boggy areas of cultivated fields and meadows 

 as in Colorado (Rockwell, 1908; Niedrach and Rockwell, 1937). 

 Alexander Wetmore (1920) describes the habitat at Lake Burford, 

 N. Mex., as clumps of dead tule (Scirpus occidentalis) fringing the 

 lake, although occasionally birds ventured up into sagebrush to feed 

 or nest. 



In the marshes of the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, Salt (1957) 

 studied the ecologic relations of song sparrows (believed to have been 

 montana, because of the location), Lincoln's sparrows, and fox spar- 

 rows. Song sparrows occupied the dense thickets 6 to 10 feet high 

 along open water, where they foraged "often with their feet in the 

 water." Population density was approximately 3 individuals per 

 10 acres, and Salt estimated plant food comprised 60 percent 

 of the summer diet. 



Spring. — Some birds winter throughout the breeding range, while 

 others migrate as far south as the northern states of Mexico. Re- 

 occupation of breeding territories takes place in late March in Colorado 

 (Cooke, 1897) and extends into early Aprilin Montana (Saunders, 1921). 



Nesting. — Nesting habits are like those of the races already dis- 

 cussed. Ground nests appear to be the commonest and are built in 



