NORTHERN SAGE SPARROW 1005 



drop out of sight again, skulking and running behind or among the 

 bushes. Song posts invai'iably are on the bush tops. 



The breeding range of the race nevadensis lies west of the Rocky 

 Mountains and east of the Cascade Kange and the Sierra Nevada, 

 some 850 miles in its east^west dimension. It extends from the inner 

 Columbia River basin of eastern Washington southeast to north- 

 western New Mexico for about 1,200 miles. In all this area the 

 vegetation used chiefly by the sage sparrows is the dominant sage- 

 brush (Artemisia tridentata). This widespread plant occurs generally 

 in the areas classed as upper Sonoran and Transition hfe zones, 

 ranging higher in places among open conifers. R. E. Snodgrass (1903) 

 describes the habitat in Washington as "most refreshing 'scab-land' 

 country. Such ai-eas alternate with the wheat deserts * * * and 

 occupy also a large space along the eastern edge of the Grand Coulee. 

 On them there is scarcely any soil, only enough for sage-brush to 

 grow. The surface is cut by erosion into UTegular hollows, low hills, 

 abrupt walls, ridges, and tower-like buttes." Jean M. Linsdale 

 (1938) states that in the Toiyabe Mountains area of central Nevada 

 the sage sparrow occurs "throughout the bush-covered desert well 

 up to the base of the mountains. * * * Sagebrush is a conspicuous 

 feature in the habitat * * * but other bushes were occupied some- 

 times." In one area of nesting beside the sagebrush there were "a 

 few Chrysothamnus and about an equal number of Sarcobatus. The 

 soil was sandy but hard and cracked slightly. There was some cover 

 of grass." 



Near Prineville in central Oregon I camped on a desert flat among 

 sage sparrows from June 19 to 21, 1938. Here, at an altitude of 3,300 

 feet, breeding pairs were in Artemisia and Chrysothamnvs cover 

 around the margins of a low area free of junipers. The soil was 

 fairly loose, and in places it was distinctly sandy. Males at times 

 sang from the tops of small juniper bushes but none was seen in the 

 juniper woodland itself. 



Indicative of some extension beyond the typical sagebrush cover 

 is Arthur C. Twomey's (1942) report of nesting southeast of Vernal, 

 Utah "in a hot, dry, sandy valley dominated by an Atriplex-Tetra- 

 dymia Commimity." In Colorado W. W. Cooke (1897) states that 

 Henshaw found the sage sparrow ranging up to 8,000 feet at San Luis 

 Park, but this woidd be Avithin the normal upper reaches of sage- 

 brush growth. 



Spring. — The migration of this race of sage sparrow, although more 

 definite than that of others, is neither conspicuous nor extensive. Not 

 all parts of its breeding range are vacated by all individuals. Thus 

 Ira N. Gabrielson and Stanley Jewett (1940) report a winter record on 

 January 14 at Umatilla, Oreg., and sago sparrows occur in January in 



