BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



Point Piiios Junco; Junco h^emalis pinosus Loomis. 

 Vicinity of Monterey and Santa Cruz. A very bright chestnut back. 

 Head and throat dull slate. 



131. Desert Sage-Sparrow; Amphispiza hilineala deserticola 

 Ridgw. 



Length, five and a half inches. The sage-sparrows are pallid desert 

 species, colored chiefly grayish brown, black and white, with few or no 

 streaks. The desert variety of the black-throated sparrow has the upper 

 parts colored plain grayish or ashy brown; below white; sides ashy; a 

 large throat-patch jet black; in full plumage the face is also black. A 

 white line extends over the eye and a second borders the throat; tail 

 black, white tipped. This species frequents the region east of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains and the Colorado Desert. 



132. Bell's Sparrow; Amphispiza belli (Cass.). 



Length, five and a half inches or a little over. Above dark grayish 

 brown, grayer on head, the back with few or no streaks; below white, 

 the sides light brownish and streaked ; white throat, bordered with black- 

 ish streaks, and a spot of same on the middle of the breast. Generally 

 distributed in the interior sage-brush districts of the State, most abundant 

 in the south. "Numerous on San Nicholas Island." 



The Sage-Sparrow (Amphispiza belli nevadensis Ridgw.) is a 

 desert race of the preceding. General color lighter gray and more 

 streaked with dusky. East of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and on the 

 Mojave Desert. 



133. Rufous-crowned Sparrow; Aimophila ruficeps (Cass.). 

 Very similar in general coloration to a chipping-sparrow, but larger. 



Length, six inches or more (size of a song-sparrow). It differs from 

 the chipping-sparrow in the following points: the under parts are buffy 

 instead of ashy, the throat is bordered with dusky streaks, the streakings 

 of the back are broader and more rusty in color, and the line over the 

 eye is obscure gray instead of pure white. Crown rufous, sometimes 

 more or less mottled with dusky ; back grayish brown, streaked with rusty 

 brown; imder parts pale buffy; throat paler, bordered with blackish 

 streaks. Note a peevish chee chee chee chee. It inhabits the chaparral 

 of open hillsides rather than the woods and gardens, which are frequented 

 by the chipping-sparrow. Apparently never very abundant, although 

 generally distributed in the coast and interior valleys, southerly. A 

 resident species in the Berkeley Hills. 



134. Song-Sparrow; Melospiza melodia (Wilson). 



This is a familiar and favorite bird throughout temperate America. 



[190] 



