[562.] BIRDS OF OREGON 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern British Columbia south to southern 

 Oregon west of Cascades. Winters south to Lower California. In Oregon: Common 

 summer resident west of Cascades from March to September. 



THE SMALLER and browner (as compared to P. g. confinis} Oregon Vesper 

 Sparrow is an abundant summer resident of the Willamette Valley and a 

 somewhat less common resident in the other valleys west of the Cascades 

 (earliest record, February 2.2., Jackson County; latest, October 9, Yamhill 

 County). It was not recognized until 1888 when Miller described it, 

 using birds from Salem as the type, but Anthony's (1886) records for 

 Washington County are clearly the first published Oregon reference that 

 pertain to the form. It is less common in the coastal valleys but can be 

 looked for in open meadow and farm lands where it frequents the fence 

 rows and pasture lands. 



We have only two definite nesting records, although it is a common 

 summer species. Gabrielson took a set of four eggs in June 1911, on 

 Powell Valley road east of Portland, and Jewett has one from Govern- 

 ment Island taken by Dick Bartlett. A little careful search in any farming 

 district would undoubtedly furnish many other nesting records, but this 

 is another of the numerous things that remains undone for lack of time. 



Western Vesper Sparrow: 



Pooecetes gramineus con finis Baird 



DESCRIPTION. "Upper parts brownish gray narrowly streaked with dusky; bend of 

 wing reddish brown; outer tail feathers partly white; under parts dull white, more or less 

 tinged with pale buffy \ streaked along sides of throat and across chest. Male: length 

 (skins) 5.50-6.2.5, wing 3.1:1-3.41, tail 2.. 49-1. 70, bill .43-. 46. Female: length 

 (skins) 5.11-6.00, wing 3.00-3.30, tail z. 2.7-2.. 68, bill .41-. 49." (Bailey) Nest: 

 Slight depression in the ground, lined with grass. Eggs: 3 to 6, greenish white, 

 spotted and streaked with brown and lavender (Plate <jz, B). 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan 

 southeast of Cascades to California, Arizona, and Texas. Winters south into 

 Mexico. In Oregon: Common summer resident of area east of Cascades. 



As WITH so many other variable birds in Oregon, the forms of the Vesper 

 Sparrow are divided by the Cascades, and the present one, the Western 

 Vesper Sparrow, is the subspecies that is a common summer resident to 

 the east. Its beautiful vesper song is a striking and characteristic sound 

 of the evening throughout that part of the State, where it becomes 

 abundant in early April (earliest date, March 2.3, Klamath County) and 

 remains a common roadside bird until September (latest date, September 

 2.0, Lake County). Such inconspicuously colored sparrows as this one 

 greatly confuse beginners in the study of birds. Each species, however, 

 has certain characteristic marks that serve to identify it with certainty. 

 The Western Vesper Sparrow is the only nesting sparrow of the open low 

 valleys that displays white outer tail feathers in flight, which together 



