BELL'S SAGE SPARROW 1015 



from the higher nesting areas. But it also migrates south and east 

 of the summer range into lowland areas. Mailliard and Grinnell 

 (1905) state that "sage sparrows were fairlj^ common out on the desert 

 and on the sage flats near" the Alohave River in midwinter; half of 

 the specimens they took there were of the race canescens. This is 

 only a short distance from the breeding grounds, as are also the win- 

 tering areas in the Joshua Tree National Monument. There Miller 

 and Stebbins (1964) found them appearing as early as August 27, 

 "moving about over sand among dead twig debris at the base of 

 chrysothamnus bushes." After wintering in this general ai-ea fairly 

 commonly, the last sage sparrows depart by the first week in April. 



Distribution 



Range. — Interior California to northeastern Baja California and 

 southwestern Arizona. 



Breeding range. — The Cahfornia sage sparrow breeds in central 

 interior California, in the southern San Joaquin Valley, including the 

 bordering mountains, from southwestern Merced and southeastern 

 San Benito counties to Tulare Comity, interior San Luis Obispo, and 

 northern Ventura, northern Los Angeles, and Kern counties; also in 

 the Inyo district (Benton southward) and adjoining central western 

 Nevada (Esmeralda County; Grapevine Mountains) and the western 

 and southern borders of the Mohave Desert (east to the San Ber- 

 nardino Mountains). 



Winter range. — Winters in the breeding range and extends south to 

 southwestern California (Riverside), northeastern Baja Cahfornia 

 (Las Palmas Canyon), and southwestern Arizona (Arlington, 

 Quitobaquito) . 



AMPHISPIZA BELLI BELLI (Cassin) 



Bell's Sage Sparrow 



PLATE 56 



Contributed by Alden H. Miller 



Habits 



In the chaparral of the coastal slopes of California the sage sparrows 

 are represented by the strikingly dark and distinctive, smaU race Am- 

 phispiza belli belli. The brush to which this form adheres is much 

 denser than that occupied by the desert races of the species and most 

 often consists of relatively compact stands of chamise. Grinnell 

 and Miller (1944) summarize the characteristics of the habitat as 

 follows : 



Chaparral of arid, or "hard" type, usually fairly dense or continuous and 2 to 

 5 feet in height. Marked preference is shown for tracts of chamise {Adenostoma) 



