1244 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETEST 237 paet 2 



Ridgway describes the adult male as follows: 



Lores, anterior portion of malar region, chin, and more or less of the throat, 

 black; rest of head and neck gray, darker (slate-gray or slate-color) on pileiim, 

 where sometimes narrowly and indistinctly streaked with dusky, fading into 

 lighter gray (no. 7) or olive-gray on chest and other under parts, the abdomen 

 white; back light rusty brown or cinnamon (sometimes mixed with broccoli 

 brown) streaked with black ; scapulars similar but with outer webs more decidedly 

 rusty or cinnamomeous; rump and upper tail-coverts plain gray or olive-gray, the 

 latter sometimes with darker mesial streaks; tail dusky, the rectrices edged with 

 light gray; lesser wing-coverts gray; middle coverts dusky centrally, broadly 

 margined, and tipped with pale cinnamon-buff y ; greater coverts dusky centrally 

 broadly edged with pale buffy brown or wood brown; tertials dusky, edged with 

 pale wood brown; primaries dusky edged with pale grayish; bill vinaceous- 

 cinnamon, more or less darker at tip; tarsi deep brown or dusky, the toes usually 

 darker * * *. 



He describes the adult female as "Similar to the adult male and not 

 always distinguishable, but usually with the black of chin, etc., duller 

 and much less extended (hardly extending to upper throat), often 

 entirely wanting, the entire head being gray (usually the black is 

 indicated by a darker shade of the gray), and the gray of pileum and 

 hindneck rather browner * * *." 



Dawson (1923), in describing the adults of this species, says that 

 "the black [on the face] of the adult female * * * is probably not 

 attained before the second season." 



Food. — Nothing seems to have been published on the food of this 

 species. We can only assume that it feeds on items similar to those 

 consumed by other chaparral-inhabiting finches. 



In the summer, black-chinned sparrows are known to forage through 

 pifions, junipers, coffee berry, sagebrush, and ephedra. Johnson, 

 Bryant, and Miller (1948) saw a few birds in brush patches in the 

 bottoms of rocky canyons, and these birds may also have been forag- 

 ing. They report shooting a female on June 9, 1938 whose beak was 

 full of insects, "evidently for nestling birds." 



Behavior. — The few available reports allow only a brief glimpse of 

 this species' behavior. 



Of its manner of moving about, Grinnell and Miller (1944) write: 

 "In moving through the brush cover, chiefly on forage missions, the 

 flight may be near the ground, through alleyways, or in the open over 

 the bush-tops. Individuals are wide-ranging for a brushland species." 



Of behavior during the nesting season, Dawson (1923) says: "Not 

 from him [the singing male] shall we receive any information as to the 

 dainty nest * * *. And if we flush the female, sitting tight till close 

 approach, she will disappear upon the instant, and as like as not for 

 good." Huey (1915) adds of an incubating female: "The bird was 

 rather tame, allowing me to get within a few feet of her. But when 

 she left the nest, it was a rapid downward flight into the nearest 



