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THE CONDOR 
Vol. XII 
royo del Valle, and Corral Hollow regions in Southern Alameda County, where the 
bird was fairly common. Favored localities are extremely hot, dry, unsheltered 
hillsides with southern and western exposures, which harbor a growth of black and 
gray sage, and a scattering of white oaks. Vegetable matter being from 88 to 97 
percent of their food, it is necessary that there be an undergrowth of grasses. 
Colonies are the rule, and the writer found usually a dozen pairs in the con- 
fines of a two or three acre hillside. The birds seldom leave the bushes for the 
oaks, their favorite perches being the tops of the sage. During the ante-nuptial 
season, the birds may be seen on their favorite perch, giving their peculiar cicada- 
like song, which has a wonderfully ventriloquistic power, and is very confusing when 
one is trying to locate the bird. 
Fig. 40. NESTING SITE (AT CROSS) OF RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW, 
NEAR ARROYO DEL VALLE, ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, 
JULY 8, 1908 
It is impossible to locate a nest by the usual method of watching the female 
bird. The bird is a past-master of the sleuth stunt, and cannot be followed when 
going to or from its nest. Just as in poker a greenhorn cannot be beaten by a 
veteran, so in egg-collecting a novice will find the best nests. 
Overhearing a conversation between Mr. W. Otto Emerson and the writer, up- 
on eggs, Mr. A. F. Taggart, a member of our party casually askt, What kind of a 
bird lays three little white eggs in a nest in a hole in the ground under a sage 
bush?’ ’ 
Emerson and I needed no more information. There was no other bird in that 
Arroyo del Valle that could do that but the Rufous-crowned Sparrow. Soon we 
had the assurance that Taggart had not smasht any of the eggs or stept on the nest 
