SVFOUS-CEOWNED SPARROW 46/ 



Rufous-crowned Sparrow. Aimophila ruficeps ruficeps (Cassin) 



Field charocters. — Size of Junco, but tail and wings shorter. No contrasted white 

 markings; top of head reddish brown (rufous) (pi. 81); plumage brown toned, tinged 

 with rufous on back; line over eye ashy gray; chin buffy white, bordered on each side 

 by black line extending a little way downward from bill; otherwise no streaks or mark- 

 ings of any sort beneath. Movements quick and frequent. Seldom flies far; keeps closely 

 within protection of low bushes. Voice: Song of male resembling in general effect song 

 of Lazuli Bunting; both sexes utter a slow series of notes, Mew, l-iew, kew-keiv-lcew ; last 

 of the series fainter, and quality throughout nasal. 



Occurrence. — Resident in small numbers and locally, in Upper Sonoran Zone. Found 

 by us at Pleasant Valley and El Portal. Lives on dry sun-facing hillsides among low 

 scattered shrubs {not in dense or high chaparral). To be met with in pairs or singly, 

 never in flocks. 



The Rufous-eroAvned Sparrow is a bird of the chaparral belt, but, unlike 

 the Wren-tit, it lives exclusively in open stands of low bushes on the driest 

 slopes. Such tracts are to be found on the sun-facing slopes at the heads 

 of the smaller ravines. The bird is not known to us to occur in the dense 

 brush at any time. These areas of dwarf chaparral are quite limited in 

 extent in the Yosemite section and the Rufous-crowned Sparrows are 

 restricted in like measure. They seem to be strictly resident and are as 

 likely to be found in the particular locality of their choice in winter as 

 in summer. We observed the birds at only two places, Pleasant Valley 

 and El Portal, but careful search of the foothill districts would doubtless 

 show them to be present in many other localities of similar nature. 



The Rufous-crowned Sparrow resembles in some ways the Bell and 

 Nevada Sag-e sparrows, but yet it differs from these birds in certain note- 

 worthy respects. It is decidedly brown rather than grayish in tone of 

 color, it possesses a reddish brown crown patch (pi. 8/), and it has no dark 

 spot on the chest. Its niche is different from that of either of the species 

 named, and it does not habitually perch in prominent view on the tops of 

 bushes as do the other two birds. 



The song of the male Rufous-crowned Sparrow is rarely heard. It is 

 somewhat like that of the Lazuli Bunting but is weaker and less elaborate. 

 For singing the bird will perch a foot or so above the ground on the top 

 of one of the small bushes of the neighborhood, where it will sing a few 

 times and then take itself off to forage. Its curious whining or nasal call 

 note, as described above, is uttered by both sexes and as a rule without 

 any apparent cause, such as danger. 



Nesting activities with the Rufous-crowned Sparrows are evidently 

 commenced in April. We found no occupied nests, but on the 25th of 

 May, 1915, near Pleasant Valley, we obtained a fully fledged juvenile bird. 

 The young birds do not differ greatly in appearance from their parents. 



