592 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



fellow," regardless Of the l)itter wind, from the top of a yellow mimosa then 

 in bloom, give utterance to a strain of sprightly and sweet notes, that would 

 comi)are faxoraldy witli those of many more famed songsters. 



Dr. Coues found this Sparrow very abundant in the southern and western 

 portions of Arizona, though rare at Fort Whipple, where the locality was 

 unsuited to it, as it seemed to prefer open plains, grassy or covered witii sage- 

 brush. 



Mr. J. H. Clarke, wlio met with these birds in Tamaulipas, Texas, and 

 New Mexico, speaks of them as abundant and widely distributed. He 

 foimd them on the lower IJio (.Trande, but more abundantly in the interior, 

 seeming to prefer the stunted and .sparse vegetation of the sand-hills and 

 dry plains to the cottonwood groves and willow thickets of the river val- 

 leys, where they were never seen. They would be very inconspicuous did 

 not the male occasionally percli himself on some topmost branch and pour 

 fortli a continuous strain of music. In the more barren regions they were 

 the almost exclusive representatives of the feathered tribes. 



Dr. Heermann first remarked this Finch near Tucson, in Arizona, where he 

 found it associated witli other Sparrows in large flocks. They were flying 

 from l)ush to bush, alighting on tlie ground to pick up grass-seeds and in- 

 sects. They were cpiite numerous, an«l he traced them as far into Texas as 

 the Dead Man's Hole, between El Paso and San Antonio. 



Dr. Cooper found a few of these birds on the treeless and waterless moun- 

 tains that border the Colorado Valley, in pairs or in small companies, hopping 

 along the ground, under the scanty shrubbery. In crossing the Providence 

 Range, in May, Dr. Cooper found their nest, containing white eggs. 



Both species of Poospiza, the helli and the hilineata, according to Mr. 

 Kidgway, are entirely peculiar in their manners, habits, and notes. Both, he 

 states, are birds characteristic of the arid artemisia plains of tlie Great Basin, 

 and, with the Ercmophila cornuta, are often the only birds met witli on those 

 de.sert wastes. The two species, he adds, are (juite uiilike in their habits and 

 manners. Tliey each have about the same extent of habitat, and even often 

 frequent the same locality. While the P. hilineata is partial to dry sandy 

 situations, inhabiting generally the arid mesa extending from the river val- 

 leys back to the mountains, the P. helli is almost (;onfined to the more 

 thrifty growth of the artemisia, as found in the damper valley portions. 

 Tlie P. helli is a resident species, and even through the severest winters is 

 found in abundance. The P. hilineata is exclusively a summer bird, one of 

 the latest to come from the South, and nnich the more shy of the two ; 

 its manners also are cjuite different. 



Both birds have one common characteristic, which renders them worthy 

 of especial remark. This is the petniliar delivery and accent, and the strange 

 sad t(me of their spring song, wliicli, though unassuming and simple, is in- 

 dued strange in the effect it produces. This song, so plaintive and mournful, 

 harmonizes with the dull monotony of tlie desert landscape. 



