FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: DESERT SPARROW 733 
and western Texas south to Chihuahua, Sonora, and Lower California; winters from 
southern border of United States south. 
State Records. —The whole of New Mexico is included within the boundaries 
of the breeding range of the Desert Sparrow, but the species occurs only in the lower 
parts of the State. [It is abundant in Lower and Upper Sonoran Zones, reaching out 
in all arms of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande (Ligon, 
1916-1918).] It has been taken north to Montoya, 4,500 
feet, near Anton Chico, 5,500 feet, and Santa Fe, 7,000 
feet (Bailey); Espanola, 5,500 feet (Surber); [Cuba on the 
Pucrco River at 6,500 feet (Ligon, 1916-1918)]; Fort 
Wingate, 7,000 feet (Henshaw); and Shiprock, 5,000 feet 
(Gilman). Since it occurs in the Rio Grande Valley of 
Colorado and even in Baca County in the extreme south¬ 
eastern part of Colorado, it undoubtedly occurs farther 
north in northeastern New Mexico than these records would 
indicate. It also occurs down to the bottoms of the lowest 
valleys at Carlsbad, 3,100 feet (Bailey); Las Cruces, 3,800 
feet (Merrill); and in the Lower Gila Valley, 5,000 feet 
(Goldman). 
[Several pairs were seen, April 11, 1926, in the Santa Fe Canyon above La Bajada 
Hill (Jensen).] Eggs were found at Mesilla, May 20, 1913 (Merrill); at Silver City, 
June 3, 1885 (Marsh); young out of the nest at Cuervo, June 11, 1903; eggs at Carls¬ 
bad, July 30, 1901; and young still being fed, August 27, 1901, in the Guadalupe 
Mountains (Bailey), rt nests abundantly along the west slope of the San Andres 
Mountains (Gaut). [Fresh eggs, and young out of the nest were found 15 miles east 
of Cutter, 6,000 feet, June 28 and 30, and July 1, 1917 (Ligon).] 
The species is probably migratory in the northern part of its range, but it winters 
at least as far north as Tularosa (Gaut), and the northern part of the San Andres 
Mountains. It is an abundant winter bird at Mesilla (Merrill).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —In catsclaw, yucca, cactus, sagebrush, creosote, other bushes, mesquite, 
and low junipers; loosely made of dried grass, sage bark, and fine plant stems, lined 
with feathers, horsehair, or wool. Eggs: 3 or 4, bluish or pinkish white. 
General Habits. —On the stony mesa above the Pecos near Carls¬ 
bad, the handsome black-throated Desert Sparrow was one of the 
commonest birds, its black, white-cornered tail showing conspicuously 
as it flew ahead of us among the scattered thorn brush, mesquite, 
creosote, and other arid Lower Sonoran bushes and on up over the agave- 
speared hills. A nest partly lined with wool, as is the custom in the 
sheep country, on July 24, 1901, contained three half-feathered nestlings. 
In the juniper basins at Santa Rosa the Desert Sparrow was fairly 
common, its bright song coming from the juniper tops. We found three 
well protected nests, two in cane cactus (Opuntia arborescens) and one 
wedged down in a bristling Yucca glauca , close beside a catsclaw, both 
of which were well along toward a happy conclusion; but an exposed nest 
in a juniper was pulled down, with feathers of the parent bird strewing 
the ground, blurred coyote or lynx tracks below telling of the tragedy 
(1906b, pp. 111-112). 
From Handbook (Fuertes) 
Fig. 125. (Amphispiza 
bilineata bilineata) 
