The Black-chinned Sparrow 

 No. 55 



Black-chinned Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 565. Spizella atrogularis (Cabanis). 



Description. — Adult (sexes alike) : Middle of back and scapulars grayish 

 brown (sayal brown or wood-brown), heavily streaked with blackish (quite as in other 

 Spizella:) ; region about base of bill — the face — black, shading posteriorly, save on 

 chin and upper throat, where abruptly defined from the neutral gray of the remaining 

 plumage; the gray darkest above, where sometimes washed with dull brownish; shading 

 below toward white or grayish white of middle belly and crissum; lower tail-coverts 

 white, broadly streaked with gray; wings and tail fuscous with vague edgings of brown- 

 ish gray. Bill reddish brown, darkening on tip; tarsus brown, feet dusky brownish. 

 Immature birds lack the black of face, and the black of the adult female — never quite 

 so strong as that of the male — is probably not attained before the second season. 

 Young birds are faintly streaked below. Length of adult about 146 (5.75); wing 62 

 (2.45); tail 66 (2.60); bill 9.3 (.37); tarsus 18.8 (.74). 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size; black face against gray ground distinctive; 

 gray of upperparts in abrupt contrast with saddle of streaky "sparrow color"; light 

 bill; chaparral-haunting habits. 



Nesting. — Nest: A compact cup of dried grasses, lined — or not — with horse- 

 hair; placed in sage or other shrub of the dwarf chaparral, often well concealed. Eggs: 

 3 or 4; of two types, both light bluish green (pale niagara green), the one unmarked, 

 the other sparingly spotted and marked with dull brown and brownish black. Av. 

 size 16.5 x 12.7 (.65 x .50). Season: May-June; one brood. 



General Range. — "Breeds in desert and coast ranges of southern California, 

 Arizona, and southern New Mexico to northern Lower California, and south over 

 the Mexican tableland to Hidalgo, Puebla, Mexico; Jalisco and Michoacan; winters 

 in the southern part of its breeding range and south to Cape San Lucas" (A. 0. U.). 



Distribution in California. — Breeds in the chaparral of mountain sides through- 

 out the San Diego district, northwestward at least to northeastern San Luis Obispo 

 County (the Wreden Ranch); and on the southeastern desert ranges north at least 

 to Silver Creek in the White Mountains (May 28, 1919). Recorded casually in Mon- 

 terey County (June 25, 1894, by Rollo H. Beck); and in Alameda County near Contra 

 Costa line (May 27, 1899, by D. A. Cohen). Only one recorded occurrence in winter; 

 San Clemente Island, Dec. 5, 1908, by C. B. Linton. 



Authorities. — Gunn, Orn. and Ool., vol. x., Feb., 1885, p. 30 (Colton); Coues, 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1866, p. 87 (Ft. Whipple, Ariz.; habits; crit.); Morcom, 

 Bull. Ridgway Orn. Club, vol. ii., 1887, p. 49; Fisher, N. Am. Fauna, no. 7, 1893, p. 92 

 (Panamint Mts., Walker Pass, Owens Valley, etc.); Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, 

 no. 7, 1912, p. 81 (s. Calif.; nesting dates, etc.); Grinnell and Swartli, L T niv. Calif. 

 Pub. Zool., vol. x., 1913, p. 273 (habits, nests and eggs, song, etc.). 



TSEET chweet chweet chweet trrrrr, came from the flanking chaparral 

 high up on the hillside. Never did I name a bird with more instant confi- 

 dence on the basis of its song alone, than I did this one, heard at evening 

 as the motor labored up the lower reaches of the San Jacinto River. Its 



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