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



Plumages. — -Adult male: above reddish-brown, the feathers edged 

 with gray; black shaft streaks on the forehead and back; tail dusky 

 A\dth broad brown edgings and tips; bend of wing light yellow; sides 

 of head (including superciliary stripe) and neck dull ash gray; a 

 narrow reddish postocular stripe; chin, throat, and belly whitish; 

 chest, sides, and flanks grayish-buff; maxilla dusky, mandible paler; 

 iris brown; legs and feet very pale brownish buffy or dull straw color. 



Adult female: similar to male but with much more extensive black 

 shaft streaking, including the hindneck and crown. Even the flanks 

 are narrowly streaked with blackish. 



The following description of the juvenal plumage is quoted from 

 R. R. Graber's (1955) thesis on the juvenal plumages of FringiUidae: 



"Fleshy parts: Bill yellow-flesh color, iris dark brown, feet flesh 

 color; lower mandible yellowish pink, feet yellowish-flesh. Natal 

 down: Pale buffy gray on crown and nape; lighter (whitish) on back, 

 wings, and sides of rump. 



"Plumage: Feathers of forehead and crown and back blackish, 

 edged with buffy gray. Nape buffy gray, much less black than crown. 

 Rump mottled buffy and black. Upper tail coverts and median 

 rectrices black, broadly edged \vith Brussels brown. Other rectrices 

 black. Remiges slate gray (tertials black), primaries edged with gray, 

 tertials with rusty. Tertials margined with buff. Wing coverts 

 black, lessers and medians edged with creamy buff, greaters edged with 

 cinnamon, tipped Mdth buff. Two mngbars. Lores light gray. 

 Superciliary Hne cream, and most prominent anterior to eye. Eye- 

 ring cream colored. Side of head uniform buffy gray. Chin and 

 throat cream, with bare suggestion of 'mustache' marks. Other under 

 parts cream, belly most richly colored. Chest and flanks tinged with 

 pinkish buff. Jugulum, chest, sides, and flanks streaked with dusky. 

 Belly and crissum unmarked. Leg feathers cream, marked with 

 dusky. Coverts black, medians and greaters broadly tipped with 

 creamy white (two distinct wingbars). Greater coverts narrowly 

 edged mth Hght cinnamon. Lores black. Cream-colored line be- 

 tween bill and eye. Eye ring white. Patch below eye black. Super- 

 ciliary line obscure except anterior to eye. Auriculars gray. Pattern 

 in malar region as in adult, cream-colored malar stripe outUned in 

 black (subocular region and sides of chin). Chin and throat white, 

 flecked with dusky. Other under parts (except crissum) white, tinged 

 with buff on breast. Breast and sides heavily streaked with dusky. 

 Belly and flanks largely white. Crissmn rich orangish buff." 



Food. — Little is known of the food habits of Botteri's sparrow. 

 Clarence Cottam and Phoebe Knappen (1939) analyzed the stom- 

 ach contents of 2 birds taken in Arizona and 12 from Texas, finding 

 them -to be about 86 percent insects, mainly Orthoptera, and about 



