ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND — 



OOLOGIST. 



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Joseph M. Wade, Editor and rublisber. 

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VOL. VII. 



NORWICH, CONN., MAY 15, 1882. 



NO. 16. 



The Rufous-winged Sparrow. 



CAPT. CHAS. E. BENDIRE, D. S. A. 



This little sparrow, tirst clescrihed in tlie 

 American Nafiira/ist in 1873, Page 322, 

 by Dr. Coues as I'euccea carpalis, is a 

 common resident in the vicinity of Tucson, 

 Aiizona Territory, where I found it abun- 

 dant both Summer and Winter. Its range 

 extends, in all probability, throughout the 

 southern border of New Mexico and Aii- 

 zona Territories. I have no positive in- 

 formation as yet that it has been taken in 

 any other locality than the one above men- 

 tioned. It is strange that stich a common 

 species should have been overlooked by 

 the naturalists of the southwestern boun- 

 dary survey, but such was the case, and it 

 was left for me to add this bii-d to om- avi- 

 faima. I took my first specimens on June 

 10, 1872, and after spending many hours 

 in vain in trj-ing to locate them, my orni- 

 thological library, consisting at the time of 

 but a single volume, the Text of the Birds 

 of North America, by Baird, Cassin and 

 Lawrence, I of coutee failed to find the 

 bu'd in that work, as it was an undescribed 

 species, nothing was left for me to do but 

 to try and make a few skins to send East 

 for identification. I believe this was one 

 of my first attempts in this line, at least 

 on so small a bird. I managed to strip 

 the hide oiF in some way, perhaps most of 

 the readers of the O. and O. have tried it 

 themselves, and know exactly how it works, 

 and my skins after they were done looked 

 as if a dog had chewed them for a short 

 time ; still there was enough of the origi- 

 nal bird left to construct a new species out 



of it. I omit giving a detailed description 

 of the bird as it can be fomid in Mr. W. 

 H. Henshaw's report to Lieut. George N. 

 Wheeler, Vol. 5 United States Geographi- 

 cal Surveys, West of 100th Meridian, 1875, 

 Page 291. 



I found these birds very common on the 

 ridges bordering Rillitto Creek, a little 

 back from the creek bottom proper, but 

 seldom any great distance from the latter 

 in the dry and arid cactus covered plains. 



The Rufous-winged SpaiTow seemed to 

 be particularly partial to a strip of country 

 scarcely a mile in length by four himdred 

 yards wide running parallel to the creek 

 and near the present site of Camp Lowell. 

 This piece of ground was then covered 

 with good sized mesquite trees interspersed 

 with sage and thorn hushes, small imder- 

 growth and bunches of tall vye and mes- 

 quite grasses. In this comparatively small 

 space I found not less than forty-three of 

 their nests with eggs and a still larger 

 number of those of the Black-throated 

 Sparrow which were still more common, 

 besides a number of nests containing young 

 birds in various stages of growth. 



The nest is usualh- placed in low bushes 

 preferably small mesquite bushes, from six 

 inches to five feet from the ground, most 

 frequently, however, about eighteen inches 

 high, and no especial attempt is made at 

 concealment. It is firmly fixed into a fork 

 or crotch of the bush in which it is built, 

 and is a conqjact stnicture, composed ex- 

 ternally of coarse grasses and lined with 

 the fine tops of the mesquite grass, and 

 not unfrequently a few horse hairs when 

 such are obtainable. These nests are 



