WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 227 



quents the thickets, keeping on rather than in the bushes. 

 Other varieties, especially white crowned and gambeli, are 

 often found in a flock of the Goldens, and are evidently 

 received into the freemasonry of good-fellowship. Their 

 food is chiefly weed seeds and winter berries, but insects 

 are also eaten, and occasionally caterpillars. 



560a. WESTERN CHIPPING SPARROW.— Spizella 

 socialis arizoncB. 



Family : The Einches, Sparrows, etc. 



Length: 5.00-6.00. 



Adults: Back light trown, narrowly streaked with black; rump and 

 tail gray ; top of head reddish brown, sometimes streaked with ashy 

 and dark ; forehead black, with short white median line ; super- 

 ciliary line white ; narrow line through the eye black ; sides of head 

 gray ; 'under parts gray, whiter on chest, and throat uustreaked ; bill 

 black. 



Young : Top of head streaked brown and black ; breast streaked. 



Geographical Distribution: Western North America, east to Eocky 

 Mountains, north to beyond latitude 60° in summer ; south in winter 

 to Southern Mexico. 



California Breeding Han^e : Upper Sonoran to Boreal zone, nearly 

 throughout the State. 



Breeding Season : May and June. 



Nest ; Of fine grasses ; lined smoothly with horsehair ; placed in bushes 

 or small trees. 



Sggs : 3 to 5 ; light greenish blue, speckled around the larger end with 

 black and brown. 



The Chipping Sparrow, or Hair Bird, is the universal 

 favorite of the sparrow family. No other is so confiding, 

 so trustful, building his nest in the fruit tree near the 

 dooryard, or in the evergreen on the lawn, or even in 

 a large rosebush. I have found him weaving his dainty 

 hair-lined cradle in the same bush in which a thrasher 

 was rearing his brood. The wee sparrow mother had 



