GROSBEAKS, FINCHES, SPARROWS: Family Trinyllidae [575] 



z. 37-2.. 59, tail -L. 2.6-2.. 44, bill .34-. 35. Female: length (skins) 4.60-5.19, wing 1.10- 

 1.59, tail 1.16-1.50, bill .34-. 36." (Bailey) Nesf: A compact cup of fine grass, 

 lined with horse hair and placed in a thick sagebrush. Eggs.- 3 or 4, greenish blue, 

 speckled about the larger end with brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southeastern British Columbia, Alberta, Mon- 

 tana, and Nebraska south, practically to Mexican boundary. In Oregon: Abundant 

 summer resident of sagebrush areas of eastern Oregon. 



BREWER'S SPARROW, the little gray sagebrush counterpart of the Chipping 

 Sparrow, is equally as abundant as its more brightly colored cousin, 

 although it sticks persistently to its chosen home. In fact, sagebrush and 

 Brewer's Sparrows are almost synonymous in our experience. Even in 

 isolated patches of sage, high on warm southern exposures in the Blue 

 Mountains, Brewer's Sparrow will be found singing his monotonous 

 little song, and a few moments search, if it be late June, will almost as 

 certainly disclose a cup-shaped nest of dried grasses and fine vegetable 

 fiber skillfully woven into some thick sage top as a receptacle for three 

 or four beautiful greenish-blue eggs wreathed about the larger end with 

 spots and flecks of brown. Bendire (Brewer 1875) took three sets of eggs 

 near Camp Harney, May 2.9, 1875, which is not only the first nesting 

 record for the State but also the first mention of the species in Oregon 

 ornithological literature. Since then it has been frequently recorded until 

 we now know it as an abundant summer resident and breeding species of 

 every county east of the Cascades that arrives in April (earliest date, 

 April 9, Sherman County) and remains until September (latest date, 

 September 2.6, Harney County). 



The normal nesting season is June, and we have found the greatest 

 number of nests (15) between June 10 and 2.1. Our earliest date is May 

 1 8, near Lakeview, and a nest containing newly hatched young was found 

 as late as July 2.2., near Crane, by Vernon Bailey and R. H. Becker, of the 

 Biological Survey. Patterson (ms.) took eggs from May 5 to 2.5. 



Harris's Sparrow: 



Zonotrichia querula (Nuttall) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Top of head and throat solid black, black streaking down 

 over middle of breast; rest of under parts white; sides and flanks baffy brown, 

 streaked with darker brown; upper parts brown; back and scapulars streaked with 

 blackish; wings with two white bars. Young, first plumage (described by Preble): 

 upper parts blackish, feathers edged with buffy and brown; wing quills edged with 

 buffy and brown; tail feathers edged and tipped with whitish; sides of head and 

 under parts buffy; malar stripe conspicuous; chest and sides streaked with black. 

 Male: length (skins) 6.46-7.33, wing 3.43-3.60, tail 3.14-3.38, bill .50-. 51. Female: 

 length (skins) 6.66-6.95, wing 3- I 5~3-35> ta il S- ^- 1 ^, bill .48-. 51." (Bailey) 

 Nesf: Built chiefly of grass, leaves, and weed stalks, with a lining of finer grass (no 

 hair, feathers, or plant down), usually situated in mossy hummocks among stunted 

 spruce trees, under some sort of low shrub and on a sheltered exposure. Eggs: 3 to 5, 



