1010 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



6 Coleoptera in 4 stomachs; 1 lepidopterous caterpillar; 14 Hyme- 

 noptera, 9 being ants; 2 spiders; 301 weed seeds; plant fragments." 

 Such food could be obtained from the ground or low in bushes, es- 

 pecially in the summer season. Insects are probably taken rarely, 

 or not at all in winter. In New Mexico, on December 2 and 3, 

 N. S. Goss (1881) found that the stomachs of four birds contained 

 only small seeds and coarse gravel. 



James B. Dixon wi'ites me that he has often seen these sparrows 

 "on the ground * * * scratching and apparently securing food from 

 the litter left in the dropped leaves of desert plants." In general, 

 however, the foraging is done by gleaning and not through scratching 

 in the litter. In thus foraging they run swiftly, stopping now and 

 then to pick up food particles. Jean M. Linsdale (1938), as noted 

 earlier, saw a bird picking off objects from the lower leaves of sage 

 bushes. 



Behavior. — Gabrielson and Jewett (1940) write that this sparrow 

 is "difficult to detect so long as it remains motionless. Its habit of 

 mounting the topmost twig of a sagebrush, however, to sing its tin- 

 kling little refrain, twitching its long black tail all the while, offers an 

 opportunity to view this * * * desert dweUer to good advantage. 

 * * * It has an almost uncanny ability to slip from one bush to 

 another, keeping out of sight of an intruder as it does so." H. W. 

 Henshaw (1875) states that fall birds are very shy and are most 

 often seen running with great agility among the bushes, their motions 

 being so quick that they might readily be mistaken for mice. In 

 running, their long tails are carried in a perpendicular position sug- 

 gesting wrens. Ralph Hoffman (1927) states that even on the ground 

 the bird jerks its tail from time to time, and N. S. Goss (1881) de- 

 scribes the birds as "very active, running about with tail steadily 

 erected at an angle of 45°, in an odd, easy, graceful manner." Grin- 

 nell and Miller (1944) say that these sparrows "forage from the 

 ground surface and parts of the bushes within reach of it and run 

 swiftly from the base of one bush to another, seeking concealment. 

 Flight is resorted to when the bird is close pressed and at times when 

 moving between lookout posts on bush tops or to and from nest 

 sites in the bushes." Jewett et al. (1953) stress the point that when 

 an observer rushes to the spot where the bird disappears, he finds 

 that it has run along the ground for several yards. "Each time it 

 rises the sage sparrow follows a new course, so that one cannot be 

 sure even of its general direction." 



There is little doubt that the long tail of this species and the upright 

 position in which it is held serves as a balancer in the agile running 

 actions. Also, the enlarged auditory bullae of the skull are probably 



