FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: TREE SPARROW 
743 
mountains of northern New Mexico from the lower limit of its breeding range— 
Hondo Canyon, 8,000 feet, and Arroyo Seco, 8,000 feet (Surber), down to Las Vegas, 
6,400 feet (Batchelder), Cienequilla, 6,000 feet (Surber), and in the Guadalupe 
Mountains above 4,000 feet where it was rather common in January 1915 (Willett). 
In 1892, it was noted along the southern boundary of the State until April 18 
(Mearns), and in 1890 until April 15 at Carlisle (Barrell). 
The last edition, 1910, of the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-List of 
North American Birds gives caniceps and dorsalis , both as subspecies of Junco 
phaeonotus. During June, 1909, both forms were found breeding together on Bear 
Ridge in the Zuni Mountains (Goldman), and the specimens collected are in each 
case typical of the form caniceps , finding here its southwestern limit and dorsalis, 
its northwestern. It is evident therefore that these two forms are not subspecies of 
the same parent stock.—W. W. Cooke. 
General Habits. —In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in 1903, 
Gray-headed Juncos were the commonest birds, and the only juncos 
seen, although we watched carefully for the Red-backed. Nests were 
found throughout the open. Near our Jack Creek camp at about 11,000 
feet, ten nests or families of young were found between July 22 and 
August 15. All of the nests found were on the ground, underneath and 
completely hidden by, tufts of grass or bunches of weeds, and were 
discovered only by flushing the brooding bird. Among the insects 
fed to the young birds were a caddice fly and a green caterpillar. 
The Gray-headed was the one abundant bird of the Gallinas Moun¬ 
tains in early October, 1904, after a cold storm when snow fell on the 
peak above us. There must have been hundreds about camp. They 
were everywhere but especially abundant in the weed patches on the 
edge of the scrub oak thickets into which they flew when flushed, 
and the stomachs of two taken were full of seeds, including a large per 
cent of pigweed. In the large flocks of gray-headed, now and then one 
of the black-headed juncos was seen. 
Additional Literature.—Rockwell, R. B., Condor, XII, 164-165, 1910 
(nest). 
WESTERN TREE SPARROW: Spizella monticola ochracea Brewster 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 5.6-6 inches, wing 2.9-3.2, tail 2.6-2.9, 
bill .4. Female: Length (skins) 5.4-5.7 inches, wing 2.9-3.1, tail 2.6-2.7, bill .3-.4. 
Tail long, broad-feathered. Adults: Crown and postocidar streak cinnamon-rufous 
bordered by broad superciliary stripes, back pale buffy streaked with black and rusty, 
tail with pale edgings, wings with two conspicuous white bars; underparts grayish, 
chest with small dusky spot (sometimes barely seen), and sides of chest brown; upper 
mandible blackish, lower yellow. (In winter general coloration more buffy, especially 
above, and crown with rufous and ashy median stripe obscured by grayish edgings.) 
Young: Heavily streaked below. 
Comparisons. —See Worthen Sparrow, Comparisons, p. 749. 
Range. —Breeds from coast of Bering Sea east to Anderson River and south in 
mountains to northern British Columbia; winters in southern British Columbia, 
Oregon, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, central Texas, and cast to 
South Dakota and Kansas; casual in Washington and reported from California. 
