[574] BIRDS OF OREGON 



eye stripe; back brownish or pale buffy, streaked with black; rump and upper tail 

 coverts gray; sides of head dull gray; under parts white or ashy. Adults in winter: 

 similar, but colors duller and darker, tinged with brown on lower parts, black on 

 forehead obscure or wanting, crown usually streaked with dusky, bill brown. 

 Young: top of head brownish streaked with blackish; superciliary buffy, streaked; 

 breast streaked; tarsus less than twice as long as bill. Male: length (skins) 4.81- 

 5.43, wing 1.64-3.00, tail 1.11-2.. 57, bill .36-. 41. Female: length (skins) 4.87-5.16, 

 wing 1.61-1.98, tail 1.11-1.41, bill .3 5-. 40." (Bailey) Nest: A neat cup of grass, 

 lined with horse hair and usually close to the ground. Eggs: 3 to 5, greenish blue, 

 speckled, largely at big end, with black and brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern British Columbia and central Alberta 

 south to Mexico. Winters south far into Mexico. In Oregon: Abundant summer 

 resident. 



THE WESTERN CHIPPING SPARROW, with its dull-red cap and prominent 

 white line over the eye, is one of our most abundant summer resident 

 birds and is one of the familiar lawn birds of the valley towns through- 

 out the State, where it may be found hopping about in the grass, collect- 

 ing insects and seeds to feed the youngsters in the hair-lined nest built in 

 some low-hanging bough. It is equally abundant and unsuspicious about 

 the mountain meadows of the Cascades and in the parklike vistas of the 

 yellow-pine forests of the Blue Mountains, where it is present at all but 

 the highest elevations. Its monotonous little song and hair-lined nests 

 are both well known to the small boys, who are often familiar with the 

 "horse hair" bird, before they ever learn the name "Chipping Sparrow." 

 It arrives in early April (earliest date, March 9, Washington County) and 

 remains until September (latest date, October n, Lake County). It nests 

 usually in June. Egg dates vary from May i to July 3, although nests 

 with young have been found as late as July 17. 



It was first made known from Oregon by Baird (Baird, Cassin, and 

 Lawrence 1858), who reported it from The Dalles, May 2., 1855, and since 

 that time has had a place in every list of Oregon birds. Our own notes, 

 as well as the Biological Survey files, are filled with records from every 

 county in the State. Willett (1919) commented on seeing several hundred 

 Western Chipping Sparrows in the sagebrush near Malheur Lake on 

 May 14. This was evidently one of those interrupted migrating move- 

 ments that occasionally causes the sagebrush to blossom out in unex- 

 pected colors. We have neither of us happened to see such a migration 

 of Chipping Sparrows but have noted it in connection with other species. 



Brewer's Sparrow: 



Spi%ella breweri breweri Cassin 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Entire upper parts streaked with black on grayish brown 

 ground; under parts soiled grayish. In winter: similar but more buffy. Young: like 

 adults, but chest and sides streaked, streaks of upper parts broader and less sharply 

 defined, and wings with two distinct bands. Male: length (skins) 4.74-5.13, wing 



