FINCHES 



49 



BELL'S SPARROW 

 Amphispiza belli ( Cassin) 



A, 11 r Xuml.cr -,74 



General Description. — Length, 5'j inches. Upper 

 parts, j^ray ; under parts, white, liill. small ; wing, long 

 and slightly rounded ; tail, trifle shorter tlian wing, 

 rounded or double rounded, the feather; broad and 

 rounded at the ends. 



Color. — Adults: Above (including ear region and 

 sides of neck), deep brownish slate-gray becoming 

 browner on back, where, as well as on crown, some- 

 times narrowly streaked with blackish or dusky; wings 

 and tail, dull blackish with light brown edgings (pale 

 grayish on primaries), the middle and greater coverts 

 indistinctly tipped with pale brownish huffy or pale 

 wood-brown ; eye-ring, cheek stripe, and under parts in 

 general, white; bitnid sIrif'L- on sides of thioat and 

 forcnfi-k. and spot in middle of chest, black or dusky- 

 grayish; sides and Hanks. tin,i;ed with huffy and 

 streaked with dusky; edge of wing, pale yellow; iris, 



brown. Young: Crown and hindneck. dull gray, 

 the former broadly streaked with black ; back and 

 shoulders, grayish brown broadly streaked with black; 

 under parts, pale yellowish buff; the chest and sides of 

 throat broadly streaked with blackish, the breast, sides, 

 and flanks with smaller streaks of the same; a huffy 

 whitish eye-ring; wings and tail much as in adults. 



Nest and Eggs. — Ne.st: In bushes, within 3 feet of 

 the ground ; composed of grasses, vegetable fibers, weed 

 stems ; lined with fine grass and hair. Eggs ; 3 or 4, 

 pale greenish-blue finely speckled with dark redflish- 

 brown, chiefly at large end. 



Distribution. — Central and southern California 

 (valleys and foothills) west of the Sierra Nevada, and 

 Colorado Desert from about latitude 38°, and south 

 into northern Lower California; also on tlie Santa 

 Barbara Islands. 



On the alkali plains of the Southwest, where 

 only yuccas, sas^ebrtish, and cacti grow, is the 

 home-land of Bell's Sparrow and its variants, 

 the Sage Sparrow (Ainpliispi::a iw-c'adnisis ncva- 

 densis). Gray Sage Sparrow {Amphispiza ncva- 

 dcnsis cincrca). and the California -Sage Sparrow 



(Aniphispi::a nevadcnsis canesccns) . Here, amid 

 the dreary wastes of hot sands, these grayish 

 brown or brownish gray little mites cheerfully 

 go about the duties of their lives, preaching 

 sermons on patience, courage, and the joy of life 

 to all their human friends. 



PINE-WOODS SPARROW 

 Peucaea aestivalis aestivalis { Liclitciistcin) 



General Description. — Len.gth, 5'„. inches. Upjier 

 parts, brown and gray in streaks ; inider parts, whitish. 

 Wings, rather short and romnled ; tail, equal to or 

 longer than wing, graduated, the feathers narrow but 

 with rounded tips. 



Color. — .Adults: Above, gray broadly streaked with 

 chestnut-brown ; tail, dusky with broad gray edgings ; 

 the middle pair of feathers, gray with a center stripe 

 of dusky; edge of wing, light yellow; sides of head 

 and neck, smoke-gray or dull ash-gray, the latter 



streaked with chestnut or dark chestnut-brown ; a nar- 

 row chestnut or chestnut-l)rown stri[ie behind eye ; 

 cliin and throat, very pale dull grayish or buft'y grayish 

 white deepening on chest, sides, and flanks into pale 

 grayish-buffy or buffy-grayish ; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Ne.st : On ground, among palmetto 

 scrubs ; constructed of fine dry grasses, in a neat, 

 symmetrical manner. Eggs : 4. pure white. 



Distribution. — Breeds in southern Georgia and 

 nortlu-rn Florida; winters in Florida. 



The Pine-woods .Sparrow of Florida and its Virginia, but in the central west thev reach 



northern variety Bachman's Sparrow, or South- southern Ohio, and central Illinois. In the 



ern Pine Finch (Pciica-a (cstivalis hachmani) far South they haunt only the jiiiie woods 



are striped .Sparrows that are distinctly and nest in the palmetto scrub in the pineries. 



southern birds. In the east they are credited Further north they show greater variations of 



as coming only as far north as southern nesting sites, but always on the ground, with the 



