444 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



Western Lark Sparrow. Chondestes graramacus strigatus Swainson 



Field characters. — Somewhat larger than Junco. Top of head and ear region chest- 

 nut, with a light stripe over crown and another over each eye; side of face white with 

 three lines of black running backward from bill; tail rounded at end (often spread by 

 the bird even when perched), blackish centrally, broadly bounded with white (fig. 54a) ; 

 upper surface of body brown, streaked with black; lower surface gleaming white with- 

 out markings other than a rounded black spot on breast. Voice: Song of male low- 

 toned, long-continued, and much varied, but always with numerous buzzing or purring 

 notes; both sexes utter a seep. 



Occurrence. — Common resident of Upper Sonoran Zone on west slope of Sierra 

 Nevada, ranging down into Lower Sonoran. Observed from Snelling and near Lagrange 

 eastward to El Portal, and to 3 miles east of Coulter ville. One pair seen in Yosemite 

 Valley May 5 and 9, 1920 (C. W. Michael, MS). Also found east of the Sierras, around 

 Mono Lake. Lives in semi-open country, in and about clearings and on dry grasslands 

 with scattering trees or bushes. Seen usually in pairs in summer, in small companies in 

 fall and winter. 



Fig. 54. Tails of (a) Western Lark Sparrow and (b) Western Vesper Sparrow, 

 natural size, showing differences in outline of partly spread tail and in distribution of 

 the white. 



The observant traveler who enters the Yosemite region over any of 

 the highways which traverse the western foothills will be likely to see a 

 sparrow with strikingly variegated plumage fly up from the roadside and 

 perch on some fence or low tree, showing as it goes a fan-shaped tail that 

 is dark centrally but broadly white at the end. And if, during the spring 

 months, the same traveler should walk along any of these roadways or 

 across the adjacent grassy oak-dotted hillsides he will probably hear the 

 unique purring song of this bird, the Western Lark Sparrow. 



Few of our sparrows wear such a distinctive pattern of coloration as 

 the lark sparrow. The head is striped and recalls the coloration of the 

 white-cro^vned sparrows, only in the lark sparrow the broad crown stripes 



