FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: CHIPPING SPARROW 745 
General Habits. —In the Kotzebue Sound region of Alaska, Doctor 
Grinnell found the Western Tree Sparrow along brush-bordered timber 
tracts and in patches of stunted willows and alders back among the 
hills, where there were full-fledged young and molting adults the latter 
part of July. The song, he says, reminded him strongly of that of the 
Lazuli Bunting (1900, pp. 51-52). 
In northeastern New Mexico, at Currumpa, in winter, Ernest 
Thompson Seton found flocks about a ranch and in sheltered ravines 
(MS). 
WESTERN CHIPPING SPARROW: Spizella passerina arizonae Coues 
From Handbook (Fuertes) 
Fig. 128. Western Chip¬ 
ping Sparrow 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 4.S-5.4 inches, wing 2.6-3, tail 2.1-2.6, 
bill .4. Female: Length (skins) 4.9-5.3 inches, wing 2.6-3, tail 2.1-2.4, bill .3-4. 
Adults in summer: Crown reddish brown , forehead blackish, 
cut by median white line; line over eye white or grayish, 
line back of eye, black; back brownish or pale buffy, 
streaked with black, rump and upper tail coverts gray, 
tail dusky; wing with a more or less distinct white or 
buffy band; underparts white or grayish; bill black. 
Adults in winter: Similar to summer adults but colors 
duller and less sharply contrasted, the chestnut of crown 
partly obscured by buffy tips to feathers, the bill brown¬ 
ish. Young: Crown with reddish brown, streaked; line 
over eye, buffy, streaked; breast and sides streaked. 
Comparisons. —The absence of pectoral blotch and 
striking wing bars distinguish the Western Chipping from 
the Western Tree Sparrow (see p. 743), and the black forehead and eye streak dis¬ 
tinguish it from the Worthen Sparrow (see p. 749). 
Range. —Breeds in Canadian, Transition, and Upper Sonoran Zones from Yu¬ 
kon, Mackenzie, and northeastern Alberta east to eastern Colorado, western Kansas, 
and south to Chihuahua and northern Lower California; winters from southern Cali¬ 
fornia, southern Arizona, New Mexico (rarely), and central Texas south to Puebla, 
Oaxaca, Michoacan, and Cape San Lucas. 
State Records. —One of the commonest breeding birds in the State, the West¬ 
ern Chipping Sparrow occurs in summer over much of New Mexico east to Las Vegas 
(Mftchell), Montoya (Bailey), Cloudcroft (Green), and the Guadalupe Mountains 
(Bailey). It breeds as low as 4,700 feet near Montoya (Bailey), 5,000 feet at Ship- 
rock (Gilman), and at 6,000 feet near Silver City (Marsh). [At 6,200 feet, Chloride, 
small young were found in a nest, June 13, 1916, and two days later fresh eggs in a 
nest, while at Mount Taylor, about 8,000 feet, July 25, 1916, young were common, 
flying about (Ligon). It was abundant in northern Santa Fe County, nesting up to 
8,500 feet (Jensen, 1922)4 Though most common as a breeder from 6,000 to 8,000 
feet, yet it seems to nest up to 11,000 feet near Pecos Baldy, on Jack Creek, where 
young still being fed were found, July 23, 1903 (Bailey). [During June and July, 
1919, great numbers were met with in the mountainous country of the head of the 
Pecos and of the Little Rio Grande. They were common about Taos at an elevation 
of about 7,300 feet and from that to around timberline. It is one of the commonest 
birds of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Ligon).) 
In the fall migration, or in summer, after the young are well grown, the Chipping 
Sparrow ascends to timberline, and was noted August 11, 1903, at 12,300 feet on 
