FINCHES 



57 



The animal food is of little interest ex- 

 cepting in the spring when it eats largely of 

 millepedes of the Jitliis group and at the same 

 time developes a taste for ground beetles. The 

 vegetable food differs from that of most other 

 Sparrows, in that it contains less grass seed, less 

 grain, and more fruit, ragweed, and polygonum. 

 Half of the food consists of ragweed and jiolyg- 

 onum, and more than a quarter of fruit. It 

 does no direct damage to cultivated fruit, though 

 it occasionally eats the buds of peach trees and 

 pear trees. Bradford Torrey has observed it 

 feeding on the fruit of burning bush. 



In western North America, Ridgway recog- 

 nizes eight forms of the Fox Sparrow. These 

 are all browner than the type species, but 

 vary otherwise and from one another only in 

 small details. They are the Shumagin Fox Spar- 

 row {Passcrclla iliaca iinalascliccnsis). found in 

 the Shumagin Islands and the Alaska Peninsula; 

 the Kodiak Fox Sparrow (Passcrclla iliaca insii- 

 laris). found in summer (in Kodiak Island, 

 Alaska, and in winter south along the coast slope 



to southern California; the Yakutat Fox Spar- 

 row (Passcrclla iliaca aniicctciis), living in sum- 

 mer on the coast of Alaska from Cross Sound 

 to Prince William Sound and in winter south 

 to California; Townscnd's Fox Sparrow (Passc- 

 rclla iliaca ttnciiscndi), making its home in the 

 coast district of southern Alaska and in the 

 winter going south to northern California; the 

 Sooty Fox Sparrow (Passcrclla iliaca fiiliginosa) 

 summering in the coast district, British Colum- 

 bia, on Vancouver Island, and in northwestern 

 Washington and wintering south along the coast 

 to San Francisco ; the Slate-colored Fox Spar- 

 row (Passcrclla iliaca schistacca), living in the 

 Rocky Mountain district, north to the interior of 

 British Columbia and south to New Mexico and 

 Arizona and east to Kansas ; the Thick-billed 

 Fox Sparrow (Passcrclla iliaca mcgarhyncha), 

 breeding on both slopes of the Sierra Nevadas 

 from Mount Shasta southward; and Stephens's 

 Fox Sparrow (Passcrclla iliaca stcplioisi). 

 breeding on the mountains of San Bernardino 

 and San Jacinto in southern California. 



TEXAS SPARROW 



Arremonops rufivirgatus { Lazvrcncc) 



A. O. U. Number ;86 



Other Name. — Green Finch. 



General Description. — Length. 534 inches. Upper 

 parts, olive-green : under parts, white. Wings, short 

 and much rounded : tail, shorter than wing. 



Color. — Adults; Above, plain grayish olive-.green 

 (wings and tail brighter) ; the crown, with two broad 

 lateral stripes of chestnut-brown separated by a central 

 stripe of olive or grayish olive-green; sides of head, 

 dull grayish relieved by a streak of chestnut-brown; a 

 narrow ring of dull white around eye; under parts, dull 

 whitish (pure white on abdomen) ; the chest, sides, and 

 flanks, shaded with buffy grayish; edge of wing, light 



yellow; iris, brown. YouNr, ; Above, dull brownish, 

 including crown ; the wing-coverts, edged and tipped 

 with tawny; beneath similar, but rather paler, becoming 

 buffy or tawny on abdomen. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest ; In open thickets, or low 

 bushes, within three feet of ground ; constructed of 

 weed stalks, grasses, leaves, lined with fine grass and 

 hair ; semi-domed, being built obliquely, the upper rim 

 extending over, hiding the eggs from perpendicular 

 view. I'XDS : 4, plain, dull white. 



Distribution. — Southern Texas and south through 

 nortlieastern Me.xico. 



There is nothing very noticeable about the 

 Texas Sparrow and it is a bird that very few 

 Americans will ever see. Its plain olive and 

 brown colors do not attract attention, and its 

 very restricted area within the United .States will 

 never make it a well-known bird. The genus to 

 which it belongs is pretty well known all through 

 Mexico and Central America, and has been called 

 the genus of Middle American Sparrows. This 

 species is the only one of the genus that has 



crossed the Rio Crande. The others are jiretty 

 well spread out over Mexico, and down through 

 the Central American States and Panama. 



The Texas Sparrow is practically non-migra- 

 tory and occupies in our area only a small 

 triangle in southern Texas. It does not extend 

 much more than three hundred miles up the Rio 

 Grande and about two hundred miles up along 

 the Texas coast. In Mexico it occupies an area 

 about the same size just across the Rio Grande. 



