THE DESERT SPARROW. tts 
edging on wing. Length of adults about 5.35 (135.9); wing 2.55 (65); tail 
2.48 (63); bill .4o (10) ; tarsus .75 (19). 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; grayish coloration; strong white super- 
ciliary; black throat distinctive. 
_Nesting.—Not yet reported from Washington. ‘Nest in bushes, slight and 
frail, close to the ground; eggs 2-5, 0.72 x 0.58 (18.3 14.7), white with a pale 
greenish or bluish tinge, unmarked; laid in May, June and later” (Coues). 
General Range.—Arid districts of southwestern United States and north- 
western Mexico west from western Texas to California north probably to southern 
Idaho and Washington; south, in winter to Chihuahua, Sonora and Lower 
California. 
Range in Washington.—Probably summer resident in Upper Sonoran and 
Arid Transition life-zones; believed to be recently invading State from south. 
Authority.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 483. 
IF one happens to be fairly well acquainted with the licensed musicians 
of the sage, the presence of a strange voice in the morning chorus is as 
noticeable as a scarlet golf jacket at church. The morning light was gilding 
the cool gray of a sage-covered hillside in Douglas County, on the 31st day of 
May, 1908, and the bird-man was mechanically checking off the members 
of the desert choir, Brewer Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow and 
the rest, as they reported for duty, one by one, when suddenly a fresh voice 
of inquiry, Blew chee tee tee, burst from the sage at a stone’s cast. The 
binoculars were instantly levelled and their use alternated rapidly with that 
of note-book and pencil as the leading features of the stranger’s dress were 
seized upon in order of saliency: Black chin and throat with rounded 
extension on chest outlined against whitish of underparts and separated 
from grayish dusky of cheeks by white malar stripe; lores, apparently includ- 
ing eye, black; brilliant white superciliary stripe; crown and back warm 
light brown. 
The newcomer was a male Desert Sparrow and the interest aroused by 
his appearance was considerably heightened when it was recalled that he was 
venturing some five hundred miles north of his furthest previously recorded 
range. This bird, probably the same individual, was seen and heard on 
several occasions subsequent thruout a stretch of half a mile bordering on 
Brook Lake. Once a female was glimpsed in company with her liege lord, 
flitting coquettishly from bush to bush; but the most diligent search failed 
to discover a nest, if such there was. Nesting was most certainly on the 
gallant’s mind for he sang at faithful intervals. The notes of his brief but 
musical offering had something of the gushing and tinkling quality of a 
Lark Sparrow’s. <A variant form, whew, whew, whiterer, began nicely but 
degenerated in the last member into the metallic clicking of Towhee. 
We have here, in all probability, another and a very conspicuous example 
