ASHY RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW 951 



In adult plumage, canescens is like ruficeps but with reds and grays 

 darker, approaching obscura in darkness (Wolf, MS) ; and as originally 

 described by W. E. Clyde Todd (1922) with "underparts less buffy, 

 more grayish in tone." 



Food. — Other than the comments of Mrs. Myers on the insects 

 fed to young noted above, little has been reported on the diet of A. 

 r. canescens. L. P. WUliams (1897) writes that "The food contained 

 in the stomachs of two females shot during May [near Redlands] 

 consisted of alfileria seeds and some small pieces of some grass stem, 

 and also coarse grains of sand and small particles of gravel." The 

 foraging habits of this race do not differ in any obvious way from those 

 of A. r. ruficeps, and presumably the adults take similar foods. The 

 damage to garden plants attributed to this species at his home in 

 the Eagle Rock portion of Los Angeles by C. O. Esterly (1920) w^as 

 almost certainly due instead to sparrows of the genus Zonotrichia, 

 for his description of the "flock of ruficeps" feeding on the open lawn 

 and in the fruit trees does not fit what has since been learned of 

 rufous-crowns. 



Behavior.' — No significant differences in movements, responses 

 to intrusion, or defense of nest or young, have been reported for 

 canescens from those described above for A. r. ruficeps. Birds of 

 the southern race are perhaps less often seen in trees, which may only 

 reflect the comparative scarcity of trees within their favored coastal 

 scrub habitat. 



In my San Gabriel Mountains study areas relatively rapid move- 

 ments of pairs or male rufous-crowned sparrows through and between 

 the low shrubs were mapped on several occasions, covering total 

 distances of up to 700 or so feet. The longest flight I noted was one 

 of 550 feet, about the usual maximum length of territory, although 

 one probable territory was nearly 950 feet long. I noted rufous- 

 crowns chasing each other through and between the shrubbery only a 

 few times; one chase. May 22, 1951, involved a pair apparently 

 intruding some 100 feet within the territory of a neighbor across a 

 small draw and being forced out. Another on May 24, 1952, involved 

 three birds, one pair plus a supposed intruder. Other chases noted 

 on April 26 and May 12 in the plot above Upland, where possibly 

 only one pair was in residence, and a slow flight of two birds in an 

 apparent chase through a horizontal arc 100 feet long just above the 

 shrub canopy on May 12 in the plot near San Dimas, may have been 

 instances of courtship behavior, for no pairs had been observed earher 

 in either territory. Whenever a known pair was involved in a chase 

 with neighbors, it usually gave the "skitter" call in its own territory 

 after the conflict. 



