The Black-chinned Sparrow 



at a quarter of a mile. Once known, it can never be forgotten; and many 

 a chaparral-covered hillside, which otherwise would have had no distinc- 

 tion, is forever impressed on memory by the quaintly sweet brank brank 

 brank brank trrrr of this modest and all too distant singer. 



The behavior of the Black-chinned Sparrow is worth recording. As 

 a singer he performs conscientiously, and with an eye single to duty. He 

 chooses elevated stations, a yucca stalk, the tip of the tallest chamisal, 

 or, rarely, a tree. He is quite demure in manner, sitting pensive or turning 

 calmly in the intervals which succeed his song. But every five or ten 

 minutes, prudence enjoins that he shift his station, even though it be to 

 another of equal prominence. If we approach, he will retire, singing 

 distantly, or else con- 



clude the concert 

 abruptly. 



Not from him shall 

 we receive any informa- 

 tion as to the dainty 

 nest, placed at a height 

 of a foot or so, in one of 

 the thickest bushes of 

 the hillside. And if we 

 flush the female, sitting 

 tight till close approach, 

 she will disappear upon 

 the instant, and as like 

 as not for good. As a 

 confirmed oologist, I am 

 inclined to resent this 

 reticence, and to set it 

 down to contumacy 

 rather than caution. The 

 three or four tiny blue- 

 green eggs, with or with- 

 out spots and dots of 

 cinnamon or sepia, are 

 annoyingly like those of 

 Spizella passerina. Who 

 knows? 



One would like to 

 see the parent bird. 

 And if there were dan- 

 ger of Brewer's Sparrows 



Taken in San Bernardino County Photo by Wright M. 



NEST AND EGGS OF BLACK-CHINNED SPARROW 



3" 



