The White-throated Sparrow 



No. 61 



White-throated Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 558. Zonotrichia albicollis (Gmelin). 



Synonym. — Peabody Bird. 



Description. — Adult male: Pileum black, parted by a median stripe which is 

 white, or with some admixture of brownish posteriorly; a broad superciliary, yellow 

 anteriorly and white posteriorly; a post-ocular streak of black; throat white, abruptly 

 cut off below and bounded on sides (or not) by blackish rictal streak; malar region, 

 sides of neck, chest, and sides of breast neutral gray, darkest on sides of neck, shading 

 posteriorly into dull brownish buffy of sides and flanks, and whitish of central under- 

 pays; remaining upperparts dull brownish gray or drab, purest on rump and upper 

 tail-coverts; on the back highly varied by central black streaks and marginings of brown- 

 ish red (snuff -brown to Prout's brown); the edge of wing yellow; the axillars white, 

 tinged with yellow; the middle and greater coverts tipped with white, forming bars. 

 Bill dusky above, paler below; irides brown; tarsi pale brown, feet a little darker. 

 Adult female: Like male and not always distinguishable, but usually somewhat 

 duller; the black of head admixed with brownish; the whites tinged with buffy; the 

 yellow over lores paler; the cheeks darker, more brownish. Immature birds: Like 

 dullest adult females, but still duller; the lateral crown-stripes more brown than black; 

 the whites more deeply tinged with buffy; the supraloral yellow duller; the white of 

 throat less pure and not sharply defined; the chest obscurely fine-barred with dusky. 

 Length of adult male about 171. 5 (6.75); wing 75 (2.95); tail 73 (2.87); bill 11. 4 (.45); 

 tarsus 23.5 (.93). Female a little smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size. Yellow spot over and in front of eye; 

 white throat sharply outlined against gray or blackish, distinctive. 



Nesting. — Nest: Does not breed in California. Nest and eggs much as in 

 Z, leucophrys; but ground-color of eggs whitish or grayish white or dull bluish white, 

 instead of pale bluish green. 



General Range. — Eastern North America, breeding from Massachusetts, 

 the mountains of Pennsylvania, central Wisconsin and northeastern Wyoming, north 

 to Great Bear Lake, Labrador, etc.; south in winter to Florida and northeastern Mex- 

 ico. Counted a straggler in Oregon, Utah, and Colorado, but may be of regular occur- 

 rence in southern California. 



Occurrence in California. — A rare but probably a regular winter visitor. 

 Records from fourteen localities, all of them west of the Sierran divide, have been 

 assembled by Grinnell. During the author's residence in Santa Barbara, they have 

 been recorded three different seasons, viz.: 1915 (in numbers), 1918-19, and 1919-20. 



Authorities. — Emerson, Zoe, vol. i., 1890, p. 45 ( Hay ward) ; Bryant, W. E., 

 ibid., p. 46 (San Francisco); McGregor, Bull. Cooper Orn. Club, vol. i., 1899, p. 52 

 (Santa Rosa); Grinnell, Pasadena Acad. Sci. Pub., vol. ii., 1898, p. 37 (Los Angeles); 

 Wythe, Condor, vol. xvii., 1915, p. 101, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 68 (Berkeley) ;Grinnell, Pac. 

 Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, pp. 117-118 (summary of records to 1915). 



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