BOTTERI'S SPARROW 979 



14 percent seeds of weedy plants and grasses. Joe T. Marshall, Jr. 

 (MS.) found mixed insects and vegetable matter in two stomachs from 

 Sonora and Chiapas, and wholly vegetable matter in a stomach from 

 Chiapas. 



Voice.— The usual call note is a typical sparrow "chip." The song, 

 although really distinctive once it has been heard a few times, is 

 rather faint and unmusical. Various interpretations of it have been 

 given, all of them subject to individual auditory impressions. L. Irby 

 Davis (1939) describes it as follows: 



It is seldom very musical and consists of such a jumble of notes that it seems al- 

 most impossible to fit words to it. It begins with some low, rather disjointed, 

 chipping notes and ends with a series that is rather like that of the Chipping 

 Sparrow, or possibly more like the Texas Sparrow. In the middle there are, 

 characteristically, two louder and clearer notes, reminding one of the middle 

 notes of the Sharpe's Seedeater's song. The two words representing these last- 

 mentioned notes wUl be indicated in quotation marks in the following attempts 

 at describing the song. The usual song may be given as vnt-wit-cheeup-cheeup- 

 "cheer, cheer", chee chee che ee e e e. Different individuals have slightly different 

 tones and there are a great variety of slight variations such as, chip-chip-twitter- 

 ttvitter-chitter-"cheep cheep," we we ee e e e, or wit-chee ee-chee ee-chip-chip-ip-ip- 

 "chee chee," wit vrit we e e e e. At times the halting preliminary notes will be 

 continued for some time and the latter part of the song (which is the musical part) 

 left off altogether: wit-wit-chee-wil-wit-cheeit-wit-wit-chee-wit. 



Allan R. Phillips (MS.) gives the following interpretation: 



"Song of Botteri's sparrow, typically, starts mth two faint Hsips," 

 then gives two 'che-licks' very like a horned lark, and goes into a 

 metallic trill (monotone, unmusical, speeding up, very like the end of 

 a rufous-winged or black-chinned sparrow's song). But the elab- 

 orate opening is sometimes not given." 



Henry W. Henshaw (1875) says: 



"The song begins with a faint trill, followed by a succession of 

 disjointed syllables, which may be expressed by the syllables cha, 

 chewee, wee, wee, wee, wir, the whole delivered in a rather monotonous, 

 listless manner, and remarkable for little else save its extreme oddit}^, 

 it being entirely different from any song I have ever heard." 



Francis Harper (1930) describes the song of Texas birds thus: 

 "The song is composed of clear, sweet notes, slightly canarylike in 

 quality. It is exceedingly variable, and seems to be given scarcely 

 twice alike in succession. It begins in a somewhat halting fashion, 

 gradually increases to a trill, and often winds up with a few notes 

 as slow as those at the beginning. One rendering that I put down 

 goes as follows: psit, psit, psitta, psitta, tseeoo, tseeoo, wit-wit-vnt-imt- 

 wit-wit-t-t-t-t-t-t, tseeoo, wit, wit. The distance at which the song can 

 be heard is probably at least 100, and possibly 200, yards." 



