Chapter VII: Part 7

These handsome and courtly gentlemen with their no less interesting, if somewhat plainer, wives are far more reserved than their talents would warrant. Our approach has sent a score of them scurrying into cover, a neglected rose-briar patch which screens a fence, and now we cannot see one of them. An occasional sharp _dzink_ of warning or protest comes out of the screen, or a suppressed titter of excitement, as two birds jostle in their effort to keep out of sight. We are being scrutinized, however, by twenty pairs of sharp eyes, and when our probation is ended, now one bird and now another hops up to an exposed branch to see and be seen.

What distinguished foreigners they are, indeed, with their white crowns, slightly raised and sharply offset by the black stripes which flank them,—Russians, perhaps, with shakos of sable and ermine. The bird has an aristocratic air which is unmistakable; and, once he has deigned to show himself, appears to expect deference as his due. What a pity they will not make their homes with us, but must needs go further north!

As diligently as I have searched for this species, I have never found a specimen in the summer months[17], nor is there any record of the bird’s nesting in Washington. This is the more remarkable in that the type form (_Z. leucophrys_) breeds extensively “thruout the high mountain districts of the western United States” (Ridgway), exclusive of Washington and Oregon, southward to the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, “northward to northern California (Mount Shasta, etc.).” In view of this, one may feel free to suggest that the Camp Harney record[18], referred to _gambelii_, is really referable to the typical form, and that as such it represents a northern extension of _leucophrys_, rather than a southern extension of _gambelii_.

No. 54.
NUTTALL’S SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 554 b. Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli Ridgw.

Synonyms.—Formerly called Gambel’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow
(name properly confined to _Z. leucophrys_). Crown Sparrow.

Description.—_Adults_: Like preceding but general tone of coloration
much darker; streaks of back and scapulars deepest brown or blackish;
general ground-color of upperparts light olive-gray; median
crown-stripe narrower, dull white; underparts more strongly washed
with brownish gray; axillaries and bend of wing more strongly yellow;
bill yellowish with dark tip. _Immature_: Similar to that of preceding
form, but underparts yellowish; upperparts light olive buff;
crown-stripe cinnamomeous, or pale chestnut. _Very young_ birds are
more extensively black-streaked above, and finely streaked below on
chin, throat, chest, and sides; bill brighter yellow; feet paler.
Length of adult males, 5.90-6.70 (150-170); wing 2.95 (75); tail 2.83
(72); bill .43 (11); tarsus .93 (23.5). Females smaller.

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; black-and-white striping of crown
distinctive in range; much darker than preceding.

Nesting.—_Nest_: on ground or low in bushes; rarely in trees up to 25
feet; a rather pretentious structure of bark-strips, dead grass, and
rootlets, with a lining of fine dead grass and horse-hair; measures
externally 6 in. wide by 4 deep; internally 2½, wide by 1 deep.
_Eggs_: 4 or 5, pale bluish white, profusely dotted and spotted, or
blotched, with varying shades of reddish brown. Av. size .86 × .64
(21.8 × 16.3). _Season_: Last week in April, and May 25-June 10; two
broods.

General Range.—Pacific Coast district, breeding from Monterey,
California, to Fort Simpson, British Columbia; south in winter to San
Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California.

Range in Washington.—Of general distribution west of the Cascade
Mountains at lower altitudes; casually winter resident.

Migrations.—_Spring_: March 25-April 1.

Authorities.—_Z. gambelii_ Gambel, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.
1858, 461. (T.) C&S. L¹.(?) L². Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. B. BN. E.

When you enter a bit of shrubbery at the edge of town in May or June, your intrusion is almost sure to be questioned by a military gentleman in a gray cloak with black-and-white trimmings. Your business may be personal, not public, but somehow you feel as if the authority of the law had been invoked, and that you would better be careful how you conduct yourself in the presence of this military person. Usually retiring, the Nuttall Sparrow courts exposure where the welfare of his family is in question, and a metallic scolding note, _zink_, or _dzink_, is made to do incessant service on such occasions. A thoroly aroused pair, worms in beak, and crests uplifted, may voice their suspicions for half an hour from fir-tip and brush-pile, without once disclosing the whereabouts of their young.

Nuttall’s Sparrow is the familiar spirit of brush-lots, fence tangles, berry patches, and half-open situations in general. He is among the last to quit the confines of the city before the advancing ranks of apartment houses and sky-scrapers, and he maintains stoutly any vantage ground of vacant lot, disordered hedge-row, or neglected swamplet left to him. After the Rusty Song Sparrow, he is perhaps the commonest Sparrow in western Washington—unquestionably so within the borders of settlement.

As a songster this Sparrow is not a conspicuous success, altho he works at his trade with commendable diligence. He chooses a prominent station, such as the topmost sprig of a fir sapling, and holds forth at regular intervals in a prosy, iterative ditty, from which the slight musical quality vanishes with distance. _Hee ho, chee weé, chee weé chee wééé_ and _Hee, wudge, i-wudge i-wudge i-wéééé_ are vocalized examples. The preliminary _hee ho_ is sometimes clear and sweet enough to prepare one’s ear for the Vesper Sparrow’s strain, but the succeeding syllables are tasteless, and the trill with which the effort concludes has a wooden quality which we may overlook in a friend but should certainly ridicule in a stranger. We are humbled in view of the vocal limitations of this bird when we recall that the voice of the White-crowned Sparrow (_Z. leucophrys_), of which ours is a local race, is noted for its sweet, pure quality. Surely our bird has caught a bad cold.

In selecting a nesting site, the Nuttall displays a marked difference of taste from the Rusty Song Sparrow, in that it selects a dry situation. The first nest, prepared during the third week in April, is almost invariably built upon the ground. A slight hollow is scratched at the base of a bush or sapling, and a rather pretentious structure of bark strips, dried grasses and rootlets is reared, with a lining of fine grass and horse-hair. A nest found on Flat-top was set in high grass at the foot of a tiny oak sapling, and was composed externally of dried yarrow leaves with a few coarse grasses; internally of fine coiled grass of a very light color, supplemented by four or five white gull feathers. The eggs, four or five in number, are of a handsome light green or bluish green shade, and are heavily dotted, spotted, or blotched with reddish brown.

A second set is prepared a month or so later than the first, and occasionally a third. Second nests are built, as likely as not, in bushes or trees; and Mr. Bowles has taken them as high as twenty-five feet from the ground.

Young birds lack the parti-colored head-stripes of the adult, altho the pattern is sketched in browns; and they are best identified by the unfailing solicitude of the parents, which attends their every movement. They are rather bumptious little creatures for all; a company of them romping about a pasture fence brings a wholesome recollection of school-boy days, and there are girls among them, too, for my! how they giggle!

No. 55.
MOUNTAIN SONG SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 581 b. Melospiza melodia montana (Henshaw).

Description[19].—_Adults_: Crown dull bay streaked with black and
divided by ashy-gray median stripe; rufous brown post-ocular and
rictal stripes, enclosing grayish-brown auriculars; remaining
upperparts ashy-gray varied by reddish brown, the gray due to broad
edgings of feathers and occupying from one-half to two-thirds the
total area according to season, feathers of back and scapulars sharply
streaked with blackish centrally; wings and tail brown varied by minor
markings and edgings of dusky, brownish gray and ashy-gray; below
white, or sordid, heavily streaked on sides of throat, breast and
sides by blackish and rufous, markings wedge-shaped, tear-shaped or
elongated, confluent on sides of throat as maxillary stripes and often
on center of breast as indistinct blotch. Bill horn-color above,
lighter below; feet pale brown, toes darker; iris brown. _Young_: Like
adults but duller, all markings less sharply defined, streaks of
underparts narrower. Length of adult male (skins): 6.00 (150); wings
2.73 (69.3); tail 2.74 (69.6); bill .48 (12.2); tarsus .88 (22.4).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; heavy streaking of breast and back,
with _varied head markings_, distinctive; lighter, grayer and more
sharply streaked as compared with _M. m. merrilli_.

Nesting.—As next.

General Range.—“Rocky Mountain district of the United States west to
and including the Sierra Nevada, in California; north to eastern
Oregon, southern Idaho and southern Montana; south in winter to
western Texas and northern Mexico” (Ridgway). Probably also north into
British Columbia and southwestern Alberta.

Range in Washington.—Migrant and winter resident along eastern
borders.

Authorities.—? Snodgrass, Auk, XX. 1903, 207. W. T. Shaw _in epist._,
Dec. 31, 1908. Sr?

Specimens.—P¹ (32 spec.).

Whether or not the Song Sparrows of northern Montana and eastern British Columbia are typical _montana_, the doctors must settle; but certain it is that sparrows of a type decidedly lighter, that is, ashier, in coloration, than our _merrilli_, pass thru our eastern borders during migrations. Of such a bird, examined narrowly at Spokane on November 4, 1905, my note-book says (comparing at every point with _merrilli_): “Ashy gray and brown of head strongly contrasting; ashy of back and scapulars very extensive, brown areas of feathers not exceeding one-third their total width; underparts clearer white; streaking lighter rusty and more sharply defined, more narrow on sides.”

No. 56.
MERRILL’S SONG SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 581 k. Melospiza melodia merrilli (Brewster).

Synonyms.—Dusky Song Sparrow. Silver-tongue.

Description.—Characters intermediate between those of _M. m. montana_
and _M. m. morphna_. In general, darker than preceding with plumage
more blended, proportion of gray in back about one-third; lighter than
next, not so brown, streakings more distinct.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a substantial structure of twigs, grasses, coiled
bark-strips, dead leaves, etc.; lined carefully with fine dead grass,
rootlets or horse-hair, placed indifferently in bushes or on the
ground. _Eggs_: 4-6, usually 5, greenish-, grayish-, or bluish-white,
heavily spotted and blotched with reddish browns which sometimes
conceal the background. Av. size .83 × .61 (21 × 15.5). _Season_:
April-July; two or three broods.

General Range.—The eastern slopes of the Cascades from northern
California to southern British Columbia, east (at least) to northern
Idaho.

Range in Washington.—East-side—theoretically inclusive. Specimens from
the central valleys of the Cascades may be called _morphna_ and those
from the Palouse country _montana_, at pleasure.

Authorities.—_M. fasciata guttata_, Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club,
VII. 1882, 227, 229. D¹. Ss¹. J.

Specimens.—P¹.

This, the connecting link between _montana_ and _morphna_, is the characteristic Song Sparrow of eastern Washington, and abounds along timbered water courses and in all cultivated districts. While closely resembling the Rusty Song Sparrow of the West-side, it may be distinguished from it by the sharper color pattern of its plumage; and the points of divergence from _montana_ are maintained with substantial uniformity, at least along the eastern slopes of the Cascades, and in the northern tier of counties.

Altho subjected to considerable rigors in winter, this species is partially resident, being largely confined during the cold season to the shelter of tule beds, wild rose thickets, clematis bowers, and the like. Nesting begins about the second week in April and continues with undiminished ardor till July or August. Incubation requires twelve days, and the young are ready to fly in as many more, so that a devoted pair is able to raise three and sometimes four broods in a season.

At this rate we should be overrun with Song Sparrows if there were not so many agencies to hold the species in check. A young Song Sparrow is the choice morsel of everything that preys,—cats, skunks, weasels, chipmunks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Crows, Magpies, Black-headed Jays, and garter snakes. How would this motley company fare were it not for the annual crop of Song Sparrows? And the wonder of it is that the brave heart holds out and sings its song of trust and love with the ruins of three nests behind it and the harvest not yet past.

A little glimpse of Nature’s prodigality in this regard was afforded by a pair which nested on my grounds in the Ahtanum Valley. On the 4th of June I came upon a nest in a rose bush, containing four young just hatched, and these almost immediately disappeared—a second, or possibly a third, attempt for the season. On July 4th in an adjoining clump the same pair was discovered with three well-fledged young, which, for aught I know, reached days of self-dependence. On July 24th a nest was found some twenty feet away containing four eggs, which I knew, both by the familiar notes and by elimination, to belong to this pair; but the nest was empty on the day following.

At the beginning of the season nests are frequently made upon the ground under cover of old vegetation, or at the base of protecting bush clumps in swamps. Occasional ground nests may also be found thruout the season. One seen at Stehekin on August 3d was nestled loosely in a recumbent potato vine. At other times any situation in bush or tree, up to twenty feet, is acceptable, if only within convenient reach of water. A favorite building site is amid the debris of last year’s flood water, caught in the willow clumps of creek or lagoon. With high boots one may wade the bed of a brushy creek near Yakima and count certainly on finding a Merrill Song Sparrow’s nest every five or ten rods.

No. 57.
RUSTY SONG SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 581 e. Melospiza melodia morphna Oberholser.

Description.—_Adults_: Somewhat like _M. m. montana_ but coloration
much more rufescent, general color of upperparts rich rusty brown,
ashy gray of _M. m. montana_ represented by rusty olive and this
reduced or (in some plumages) almost wanting; black mesial streaks of
scapulars, etc., much reduced, indistinct or sometimes wanting;
underparts heavily and broadly streaked with chestnut usually without
black shaft lines; sides and flanks washed with olivaceous. “_Young_,
slightly rufescent bister brown above, the back streaked with
blackish, beneath dull whitish or very pale buffy grayish, the chest,
sides and flanks more or less tinged with buffy or pale fulvous and
streaked with sooty brownish” (Ridgway). Length about 6.40 (162.5);
wing 2.60 (66); tail 2.56 (65); bill .50 (12.7); tarsus .67 (17).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; rusty brown coloration; heavily
spotting of underparts distinctive save for the _Passerella iliaca_
group from which it is further distinguished by smaller size and
varied head markings.

Nesting.—_Nest_: As in preceding. _Eggs_: usually 4, averaging darker
in coloration and larger than in _M. m. merrilli_. Av. size, .87 × .63
(22.1 × 16). _Season_: second week in April to July; two or three
broods.

General Range.—“Breeding from extreme southern portion of Alaska
through British Columbia (including Vancouver Island) to western
Oregon (north of Rogue River Mountains); in winter, south to southern
California (Fort Tejon, etc.)” (Ridgway).

Range in Washington.—Common resident west of the Cascades; found
chiefly in vicinity of water.

Authorities.—? Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 22. _M. rufina_, Baird,
Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 481. (T). C&S. L¹. Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk.
B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. E.

If one were to write a book about the blessings of common things, an early chapter must needs be devoted to the Song Sparrow. How blessed a thing it is that we do not all of us have to go to greenhouses for our flowers, nor to foreign shores for birds. Why, there is more lavish loveliness in a dandelion than there is in an imported orchid; and I fancy we should tire of the Nightingale, if we had to exchange for him our sweet poet of common day, the Song Sparrow.

Familiar he certainly is; for while he has none of the vulgar obtrusiveness of _Passer domesticus_, nor confesses any love for mere bricks and mortar, there is not a weedy back lot outside of the fire limits which he has not gladdened with his presence, nor a disordered wood-pile or brush-heap which he has not explored. Much lurking under cover in time of rain has darkened his plumage beyond that of the eastern bird, and close association with the fallen monarchs of the forest has reddened it, until he himself looks like a rusty fragment of a mouldering fir log.

It is as a songster, however, that we know this sparrow best. Silver-tongue’s melody is like sunshine, bountiful and free and ever grateful. Mounting some bush or upturned root, he greets his childish listeners with “_Peace, peace, peace be unto you, my children._” And that is his message to all the world, “Peace, and good-will.” Once we sat stormbound at the mouth of our tent, and, mindful of the unused cameras, grumbled at the eternal drizzle. Whereupon the local poet flitted to a favorite perch on a stump hard by, and, throwing back his head, sang, with sympathetic earnestness, “Cheer up! Cheer up! Count your many mercies _now_.” Of course he did say exactly that, and the childish emphasis he put upon the last word set us to laughing, my partner and me, until there was no more thought of complaint.

Even in winter the brave-hearted bird avails himself of the slightest pretext—an hour of sunlight or a rise of temperature—to mount a bush and rehearse his cheerful lay. The song is not continuous, but it is frequently repeated thru periods of several minutes, and is followed by little intervals of placid contemplation.

But no matter how gentle a bird’s disposition may be, there is ample use, alack! for the note of warning and distrust. When, therefore, the Song Sparrow’s nesting haunts are invaded, the bird emits a _chip_ or _chirp_, still musical, indeed, but very anxious. In winter the resident birds deny themselves even this characteristic cry; and, except for the occasional outbursts of full song, they are limited to a high nasal _tss_, which seems to serve the purpose of a flocking, or recognition, call. Song Sparrows are not really gregarious birds; nor are they even seen in close proximity save in mating time; but they like to assure themselves, nevertheless, that a dozen of their fellows are within call against a time of need.

Silver-tongue is a bird of the ground and contiguous levels. When hiding, he does not seek the depths of the foliage in trees, but skulks among the dead leaves on the ground, or even threads his way thru log heaps. If driven from one covert, the bird dashes to another with an odd jerking flight, working its tail like a pump-handle, as tho to assist progress. Ordinarily the bird is not fearful, altho retiring in disposition. Apart from the haunts of men the Song Sparrow of western Washington is closely attached to the water; and is not to be looked for save in damp woods, in swamps, in the vicinity of open water, whether of lake or ocean, or along the brushy margins of streams. Indeed, its habits are beginning to assume a slightly aquatic character. Not only does it plash about carelessly in shallow water, but it sometimes seizes and devours small minnows.

Save in favored localities, such as the margins of a tule swamp, nests of the Rusty Song Sparrow are not obtrusively common. “Back East,” in a season of all around nesting, about one-fifth of the nests found would be those of the Song Sparrow. Not so on Puget Sound; for, altho the birds are common, heavy cover is ten times more common, and I would sooner undertake to find a dozen Warblers’ nests than as many Song Sparrows’. Nesting begins about April 1st, at which time nests are commonly built upon the ground or in a tussock of grass or tules. The end of a log, overshadowed by growing ferns, is a favorite place later in the season; while brush-heaps, bushes, fir saplings, trees, or clambering vines, such as ivy and clematis, are not despised.

The eggs, Mr. Bowles finds, are almost invariably four in number, as in a very large number of sets examined only one contained five eggs. They are of a light greenish blue in ground color, and are spotted and blotched heavily and irregularly with reddish browns, especially about the larger end. Several broods are raised each season.

The Rusty Song Sparrow, because of its abundance in winter, affords the impression of being strictly a resident bird in western Washington. Such may be the case with a majority of the individuals, but there is still evidence of a southward movement of the race, the place of local birds being supplied in winter partly by British Columbia birds, which show a heavier and more uniformly blended type of plumage, approaching that of _M. c. rufina_.

No. 58.
SOOTY SONG SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 581 f. Melospiza melodia rufina (Bonap.).

Description.—Similar to _M. m. morphna_ but larger and with coloration
darker, more blended; general color of upperparts deep sooty brown or
bister, brightening on greater wing-coverts and tertials; back
obscurely streaked with darker; median crown-stripe obsolete or at
least indistinct; streaking of underparts dark brown. Length 6.50
(165) or over; wing 2.75 (70); tail 2.64 (67); bill .48 (12.3); tarsus
.92 (23.5).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; dark brown coloration; plumage of
upperparts blended, almost uniform. Requires careful distinction from
_Passerella_ but is smaller and variegation of head still traceable.

Nesting.—As in preceding. Does not breed in Washington.

General Range.—“Southern Alaska (islands and coast); north to Cross
Sound, Glacier Bay, Lynn Canal, etc.; south to north side of Dixon
Entrance, in winter to coast of British Columbia, Vancouver Island,
and northwestern Washington (Olympic Mountains)” (Ridgway).

Range in Washington.—Winter resident in northwestern portion of
State—not common.

Authorities.—_M. cinerea rufina_ (Brandt), Ridgway, Birds of North and
Middle America, Vol I. p. 374. E.

Specimens.—Prov. E.

These larger and darker birds reach our northern borders in winter only, having retired thus far from their home in southern Alaska. Their demeanor while with us is even more modest than that of the local Silver-tongue; and when one is stalking the dank woods of Whatcom County on the _qui vive_ for varieties, it requires a second glance to distinguish this Song Sparrow, with its softly blended plumage, from a winter Fox Sparrow.

No. 59.
LINCOLN’S SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 583. Melospiza lincolnii (Aud.).

Synonyms.—Lincoln’s Song Sparrow. Lincoln Finch.

Description.—_Adults_: Above, much like _M. melodia montana_, but
crown brighter rufous, and with more decided black markings: back
browner and more broadly and smartly streaked with black; the gray of
back sometimes with a bluish and sometimes with an olivaceous tinge;
below, throat and belly white, the former never quite immaculate, but
with small arrow-shaped black marks; sides of head and neck and
remaining underparts creamy buff, everywhere marked by elongated and
sharply defined black streaks; usually an abrupt dusky spot on center
of breast; bill blackish above, lighter below, feet brownish. Length
about 5.75 (146.1); av. of six specimens; wing 2.48 (63); tail 2.11
(53.6); bill .40 (10.2).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; bears general resemblance to Song
Sparrow, from which it is clearly distinguished by buffy chest-band,
and by narrow, sharp streaks of breast and sides.

Nesting.—_Nest_: much like that of Rusty Song Sparrow, of dried
grasses, etc., usually on ground, rarely in bushes. _Eggs_: 3 or 4,
greenish white spotted and blotched with chestnut and grayish. Av.
size, .80 × .58 (20.3 × 14.7). _Season_: June, July; two (?) broods.

General Range.—North America at large breeding chiefly north of the
United States (at least as far as the Yukon Valley) and in the higher
parts of the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade-Sierras; south in winter
to Panama.

Range in Washington.—Imperfectly made out—probably not rare spring and
fall migrant, at least west of the Cascades; found breeding in the
Rainier National Park.

Authorities.—[“Lincoln’s Finch,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885),
22.] Bowles and Dawson, Auk, XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 483.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B.

Modesty is a beautiful trait, and, I suppose, if we had always to choose between the brazen arrogance of the English Sparrow and the shy timorousness of this bird-afraid-of-his-shadow, we should feel obliged to accept the latter. But why should a bird of such inconspicuous color steal silently thru our forests and slink along our streams with bated breath as if in mortal dread of the human eye? Are we then such hobgloblins?

Thrice only have I seen this bird, and then in northern Ohio. On the first occasion two of us followed a twinkling suspicion along a shadowy woodland stream for upwards of a hundred yards. Finally we neared the edge of the woods. There was light! exposure! recognition! With an inward groan the flitting shape quitted the last brush-pile and rose twenty feet to a tree-limb. Just an instant—but enough for our purpose—and he had whisked over our heads, hot-wing upon the dusky back trail. That same May day we came upon a little company of these Sparrows halted by the forbidding aspect of Lake Erie, and dallying for the nonce in the dense thickets which skirted a sluggish tributary. Here they skulked like moles, and it was only by patient endeavor that we were able to cut out a single bird and constrain it to intermittent exposure at the edge of the stream. Here, at intervals, from the opposite bank, we eagerly took note of its head-stripes, pale streaked breast, and very demure airs, and listened to snatches of a sweet but very weak song, with which the bird favored us in spite of our “persecution.” Is it any wonder that the Lincoln Sparrow is so little known to fame?

While rated a regular summer resident of British America and Alaska, Lincoln’s Sparrow has also been found breeding in the mountains of eastern Oregon, California, Utah, and Colorado. It ought, therefore to occur in Washington; but we have only to shrug our shoulders and say with the lawyer, _non est inventus_. Indeed, the only positive record we have of the bird’s occurrence at any season is that of a specimen taken by A. Gordon Bowles, Jr., in Wright’s Park, Tacoma, May 22, 1906.

So much penned in good faith in April, 1908. In June of the same year the good fairy of the bird-man piloted him to a spot where the Lincoln Sparrows were so numerously and so thoroly at home, that he began to wonder whether he might not have been dreaming after all for the past quarter of a century. Ten or a dozen pairs were found occupying the well-known swamp at Longmire’s Springs. On the 30th of June they were much more in evidence than the Rusty Song Sparrows, which occupied the same grassy fastnesses; and altho the females were not done waiting on overgrown babies, the males were loudly urging their second suits.

The song of the Lincoln Sparrow is of a distinctly musical order, being gushing, vivacious, and wren-like in quality, rather than lisping and wooden, like so many of our sparrow songs. Indeed, the bird shows a much stronger relationship in song to the Purple Finch than to its immediate congeners, the Song Sparrows. The principal strain is gurgling, rolling, and spontaneous, and the bird has ever the trick of adding two or three inconsequential notes at the end of his ditty, quite in approved Purple Finch fashion. “_Linkup, tinkup perly werly willie willie weeee_ (dim.)” said one; “_Riggle, jiggle, eet eet eet eer oor_,” another. “_Che willy willy willy che quill_”; “_Lee lee lee quilly willy willy_,” and other such, came with full force and freshness at a hundred yards to the listeners on the back porch at Longmire’s.

When studied in the swamp, the Lincoln Finches were found to be more reluctant than Song Sparrows to expose themselves, but one pair, anxious for their young, sat out against a clear sky again and again. The bird was seen occasionally to erect its crown feathers in inquiry or excitement, as do Chipping Sparrow, Nuttall Sparrow, _et al._ A Yellow Warbler, stumbling into the manorial bush, was set upon furiously; but she made off philosophically, knowing that her punishment was after the accepted code. A Rusty Song Sparrow, however, was allowed to sit quietly at a foot’s remove, not, apparently, because he was so much bigger, nor even because nearer of kin, but rather because of common parental anxiety. The contrast here was instructive; the Lincoln Sparrow being not only smaller but more lightly colored and with a sharp-cut streakiness of plumage. A comparison of many examples showed the similarity of head pattern between the two Sparrows to be very noticeable, while the buffy tinge of the Lincoln’s breast would appear to be one of its least constant marks.

An alleged sub-species, Forbush’s Sparrow, _M. l. striata_, “Similar to _M. lincolni_ but superciliary stripes and upperparts more strongly olivaceous, and dark streaks especially on back and upper tail-coverts, coarser, blacker, and more numerous,” has been ascribed to British Columbia and western Washington, but the material at hand is meager and inconclusive, and the proposed form has been passed upon adversely by Ridgway.

No. 60.
KADIAK FOX SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 a (part). Passerella iliaca insularis Ridgway.

[_Description of Passerella iliaca unalaschensis_ (Shumagin Fox
Sparrow).—_Adults_: “Pileum and hindneck brownish gray or grayish
brown (nearly hair brown) passing into clear gray (mouse gray or smoke
gray) on superciliary region and sides of neck; auricular region
brownish gray, with narrow and indistinct shaft streaks of whitish;
back, scapulars, and rump plain hair brown; greater wing-coverts,
tertials and upper tail-coverts dull cinnamon brown, the rest of wings
intermediate between the last named color and color of back, except
edges of outermost primaries, which are pale hair brown; underparts
white, the foreneck, sides of throat (submalar region), chest, and
sides of breast marked with triangular spots of deep grayish brown or
drab; the flanks broadly streaked or striped with the same (both sides
and flanks mostly grayish brown laterally); malar region white flecked
with grayish brown; under tail-coverts grayish brown centrally,
broadly margined with white or buffy white; middle of throat and
breast usually with a few small spots of brown; maxilla dusky on
culmen, paler on tomia; mandible pale colored (yellowish in winter,
pinkish or liliaceous in summer); iris brown; legs and feet brown”
(Ridgway).]

Description.—“Similar to _P. i. unalaschensis_ but much browner and
more uniform in color above (back, etc., warm sepia brown instead of
grayish brown or brownish gray); spots on chest, etc., larger and
deeper brown; under tail coverts more strongly tipped with buff”
(Ridgway). Length of adult male (skins): 6.78 (172.5); wing 3.30
(83.8); tail 2.92 (74.1); bill .50 (12.7); tarsus 1.02 (25.9).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; uniform brownish coloration of back;
underparts heavily spotted with brown; _browner_ than _unalaschensis_
but duller than _townsendi_; larger than _annectens_; color of crown
unbroken as compared with Rusty Song Sparrow (_Melospiza melodia
morphna_), also bird larger.

General Range.—“Kadiak Island, Alaska, in summer; in winter south
along the coast slope to southern California.”

Range in Washington.—Winter resident and migrant west of Cascades.

Authorities.—_Passerella townsendii_ Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.
1858. p. 489 part (Whitbeys Id., winter).—_Fide_ Ridgway.

A singular fatality (or, more strictly, _want_ of fatality) has
attended our efforts to secure a representative series of migrating
Fox Sparrows on Puget Sound. The birds have only revealed themselves
in city parks or otherwise in the absence of a gun. It is practically
certain that all the Alaskan forms described by Mr. Ridgway occur here
regularly in winter and during migrations but so unobtrusive are the
birds and so dense the cover afforded that we have been completely
baffled in our attempts, and find ourselves obliged, at the last
moment, to fall back upon Mr. Ridgway’s original descriptions in Birds
of North and Middle America, Vol. I. (p. 389 ff), and for the use of
these we desire again to express our grateful obligations.

For additional remarks on the Shumagin Fox Sparrow (_P. i.
unalaschensis_) and the Yakutat Fox Sparrow (_P. is annectens_) see
Hypothetical List in Volume II. of this work.

Field identification of the Fox Sparrows by means of binoculars may not command the respect of precise scientists. But there he sat, placid, at twenty feet, in a well-lighted grove on the Nisqually Flats, on the 10th day of February, 1906. See; twenty divided by eight (the magnifying power of the glasses) equals two and a half. At arm’s length I held him, while I noted that the upperparts were dull hair-brown thruout, not noticeably brightening on wings and tail but perhaps a shade darker on the crown; underparts heavily but _clearly_ spotted with a warmer brown—so, obviously and indisputably, neither a Sooty nor a Townsend. Shumagin (_P. i. unalaschensis_) perhaps; but Ridgway[20] enters all Puget Sound winter records as Kadiaks, and we must follow the gleam until we are able to perfect the light of our own little lanterns by the flash of a shot-gun.

No. 61.
TOWNSEND’S SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 a (part). Passerella iliaca townsendi (Audubon).

[_Description of P. i. annectens_ (Yakutat Fox Sparrow).—“Similar to
_P. i. insularis_ but smaller (the bill especially) and coloration
slightly browner” (Ridgw.).]

Description.—_Adults_: Similar to _P. i. annectens_ but coloration
darker and richer (inclining to chestnut brown); spots on chest, etc.,
larger. “Above deep vandyke brown, duller (more sooty) on pileum, more
reddish (inclining to burnt umber or dark chestnut brown) on upper
tail-coverts and tail; sides of head deep sooty brown, the lores
dotted, the auricular region finely streaked, with dull whitish;
general color of underparts white, but everywhere spotted or streaked
with deep chestnut brown or vandyke brown, the spots mostly of
triangular (deltoid and cuneate) form, very heavy and more or less
confluent on chest, smaller on throat and breast; sides and flanks
almost uniform deep brown, the latter tinged with buffy or pale tawny,
under tail-coverts deep olive or olive-brown broadly margined with
buffy or pale fulvous.” Length of adult male (skins): 6.67 (169.4);
wing 3.17 (80.5); tail 2.78 (70.6); bill .47 (11.9); tarsus 1.00
(25.4).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; warm brown (nearly uniform)
coloration of upperparts; heavy spotting of chest, etc. Absence of
distinctive head markings will distinguish bird from local Song
Sparrows, and robust form with conical beak from migrating Hermit
Thrushes.

Nesting.—As next. Does not breed in Washington.

General Range.—“Coast district of southern Alaska (islands and coast
of mainland from southern side of Cross Sound, Lynn Canal, etc., to
north side of Dixon Entrance); in winter, south to northern
California” (Ridgway).

Range in Washington.—Common migrant and (possibly) winter resident
west of Cascades.

Authorities.—? _Fringilla townsendi_ Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 236,
pl. 424, fig. 7 (Columbia River). Townsend, Narrative (1839), p. 345.
_Passerella townsendii_, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p.
489. C&S. Ra. Kk. B. E(H).

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. C.

Time was when all the various Fox Sparrows of the Pacific Northwest were lumped together under the name Townsend’s Sparrow. A more critical age, however, under the leadership of Professor Ridgway, has resolved the bewildering array of shifting browns into five forms, or subspecies, assigning to each summer quarters according to the dullness or brightness of its coat. The end is not yet, of course, but the distinctions already made are sufficiently attenuated to cause the public to yawn. Suffice it to say, that this is one of the plastic species long resident on the Pacific Coast; and that the varying conditions of rainfall and temperature, to which the birds have been subjected thruout the greater portion of the year, have given rise to five recognizable forms of the Townsend Sparrow.

Probably all forms are migratory, but the northernmost member of the group, the Shumagin Fox Sparrow (_P. i. unalaschensis_) has not been taken except in its summer home, the Alaska Peninsula, Unalaska, and the Shumagins. The remaining four are known to retire in winter as far south as California; but whether they preserve the 2, 3, 4, 5, arrangement in winter, or whether the order is roughly reversed (as is true in the case of certain other species), so that number 2 goes farthest south, while number 5, less anxious as to the severities of winter, migrates, as it were, half-heartedly, and becomes for a time the northernmost form, we cannot tell. However this may be, Townsend’s Sparrow proper (_P. i. townsendi_) appears to outnumber any of the remoter forms during at least the spring migrations; and because it is our next neighbor on the north, should be entitled to more consideration than plain heathen birds.

At no time does the absorptive power of our matchless Puget Sound cover appear to greater advantage than during the migration of the Fox Sparrows. However they may choose to move at night, by day they frequent the dense tangles of salal and salmon brush, or skulk about in cedar swamps. To search for them is useless, but if you are much out-of-doors the time will come, while you are footing it softly along some woodland path, that a demure brown bird will hop out in front of you and look unconcernedly for tid-bits before your very eyes. The bird is a little larger than a Song Sparrow, but you will require a second glance to note that the colors of the upperparts are smoothly blended, that the head lacks the vague stripiness of _Melospiza_, and that the underparts are spotted instead of streaked. Or, it may be, that you chance upon him as he is busily scratching among the fallen alder leaves. Scratching is hardly the word tho, for the bird leaps forward and executes an extravagant double kick backward, landing invariably at the edge of the cleared space. Here, without a moment’s delay, he proceeds to glean busily, whereas you rather expected him to pause at the end of his stunt, like the acrobat, awaiting the conventional burst of applause. If you must needs pursue the path, he hops back into the thicket and you have seen, perhaps, your last Fox Sparrow for this year, altho his migrating kinsmen must number millions.

No. 62.
SOOTY FOX SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 a (part). Passerella iliaca fuliginosa Ridgway.

Description.—_Adults_: Upperparts, sides of head, neck, and lateral
underparts nearly uniform dark brown (sepia brown—“sooty” not
inappropriate), warming slightly upon exposed surfaces of wings and
upon rump and outer edges of rectrices; below white save for under
tail-coverts, which have clear buffy wash, everywhere save on middle
belly heavily marked with large, chiefly triangular, spots of the
color of back or darker—spotting heaviest on breast where nearly
confluent. Bill black above shading on sides into yellow of lower
mandible; feet pale ruddy brown or wine-color. Length (of a single
fresh specimen) 7.45 (191.7); wing (av.) 3.21 (81.5); tail 2.91 (77);
bill .48 (12.2); tarsus 1.02 (25.9).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow to Chewink size; uniform sooty brown
coloration of head and upperparts; heavily spotted below with sepia or
blackish; darker above and more heavily spotted below than any migrant
form of the _P. i. unalaschensis_ group.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a bulky structure with a broad, flat brim, of mosses,
grasses, twigs, woody fibers, weed-stalks, often heavily lined with
fine dry grass of contrasting color and with an inner mat of fur, hair
or feathers; placed at moderate heights in thickets or saplings;
measures externally 6 inches across by 3 deep, internally 2⅛ across by
1⅝ deep. _Eggs_: 4, greenish blue, spotted, or spotted and clouded,
with reddish brown. Av. size, .94 × .68 (23.8 × 17.3). _Season_:
May-July; two broods.

General Range.—Summer resident in coast region of British Columbia and
northwestern Washington; in winter south along the coast to San
Francisco.

Range in Washington.—Breeding on the San Juan Islands and upon the
northern and western shores of the Olympic Peninsula; not uncommon
migrant on Puget Sound.

Authorities.—(?) Baird, Rep. Pac., etc., 489 part; (?) Cooper and
Suckley Rep. Pac., etc., 204 part; (?) Sclater Cat. Am. Birds, 1862,
119 part (Simiahmoo [sic]); Ridgway, Auk, XVI. Jan. 1899, 36 (Neah
Bay). Kb. E.

Specimens.—Prov. BN. E.

The mystery of the Fox Sparrow clears a little as we move northward on Puget Sound, and may even resolve itself one day as we spend a lazy July in camp on one of the San Juan islands. We are puzzled, as the tent pegs are being driven, by certain sprightly songs bursting out now here, now there, from the copse. We labor under a sense of avian surveillance as we gather fuel from the beach, but the songs are too joyous and limpid to make precise connections with anything in previous experience. It is not till the cool of the evening, when we seek the spring, back in the depths of the thicket, that we come upon a fair birdmaiden slyly regaling herself upon a luscious salmon-berry, flushed to the wine-red of perfection, while three of her suitors peal invitations to separate bowers in the neighboring tangles. She flees guiltily on detection, but the secret is out; we know now where these shy wood nymphs keep themselves in summer.

The male bird is sometimes emboldened by the moment of song to venture into the tops of willows or alders, but even here he hugs the screen of leaves and is ready in a trice to dive into the more familiar element of bushes. Once under cover of the protecting salal, or among the crowding ferns, the Fox Sparrows are excelled by none in their ability to get about with a modicum of disturbance; and the longest journeys, such as are made necessary in the time of clamoring young, appear to be made by slipping and sliding thru the maze of intersecting stems. The song is varied and vivacious; but, save for the opening notes, is neither very strong nor very brilliant. The opening phrase, however, _Pewit, heu_, comes as a tiny bugle call into which is distilled the essence of all dank hollows, of all rustling leaves, of all murmuring tides, and of all free-blowing breezes. It is the authentic voice of the little wild.

On a July day a trio of Indian boys, Quillayutes, were showing the bird-man a round of belated nesters, while he was looking for opportunities to photograph eggs, and also recording Quillayutan bird names in passing. A Rusty Song Sparrow’s nest held only weanlings, mildly hideous, and the leader, a lad of ten, expressed regret that he could not show me the nest of another kind of Song Sparrow. With excess of Caucasian pride I assured him that there was only one species of Song Sparrow to be found locally, but my learned statements drew forth only puzzled and unconvicted glances. Some days later when I had taken a set of Sooty Fox Sparrow’s eggs from a neighboring islet, the boys clamored in triumph, “That’s it; those are the eggs of _Tahbahlilchteh_, the other Song Sparrow we told you about.” The boys were near enough right; the Fox Sparrow is for all the ordinary world like a Song Sparrow; and I venture that not a dozen white boys in Washington ever saw the bird itself, let alone distinguishing it by name.

The eggs referred to were found amid most romantic surroundings, on a sea-girt islet a mile or two out from the Pacific shore. The island is given over to sea-birds, and these nest upon its precipitous sides to the number of thousands; but the center of the rock is crowned with a grove of spruce trees, which overshadow a dense growth of salmon-berry bushes. In a clump of the latter at a height of six feet was placed a very bulky but unusually handsome nest, which held, in the really tiny cup which occupies the upper center of the structure, three eggs of a greenish blue color heavily spotted and marbled with warm browns. The nest measures externally eight and ten inches in width, internally two; in depth four inches outside and only one and a half inside. It is composed chiefly of green mosses set in dead spruce twigs with a few twisted weed stalks; while the lining is of a light-colored, fine, dead grass, very loosely arranged, and a few breast-feathers of the Glaucous-winged Gull. A nest full of young Peregrine Falcons were conversing in screams with their doting parents in the spruce trees overhead, and terrorizing the island thereby; but the Sooty Fox Sparrows stepped forward modestly to claim ownership in the nest which “Science” unfortunately required. The date was July 21, 1906, and the eggs were nearly upon the point of hatching.

Thus, the north and west slopes of the Olympic Mountains, together with the islands of lower Puget Sound, appear to mark the southern breeding range of the coastal Fox Sparrows. This form has not been reported breeding upon the mainland east of Puget Sound, but it is difficult to see why it should not do so. It is rather the commonest form during the spring and fall migrations, and there is no evidence as yet that it tarries with us in winter.

No. 63.
SLATE-COLORED SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 c. Passerella iliaca schistacea (Baird).

Synonym.—Slate-colored Fox Sparrow.

Description.—_Adults_: Upperparts slaty gray tinged with olivaceous,
changing abruptly to russet brown on upper tail-coverts, and tail;
wings brown brightening, more rusty, on edges of greater coverts and
secondaries; some white fleckings below eye, and supraloral spot dull
whitish; underparts white shaded with color of back on sides; the
sides of throat, chest, and sides of breast heavily and distinctly
marked with triangular spots of sepia; lower breast (and sometimes
middle of throat) flecked, and sides and flanks striped, with the same
shade; under tail-coverts grayish brown centrally edged broadly with
buffy. _Young birds_ are tinged with brown above and are duller white
below with less distinct markings. Length of adult male 7.00-7.50
(177.8-190.5); wing 3.15 (80); tail 3.15 (80); bill .47 (12); tarsus
.92 (23.3).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow to Chewink size; slaty gray and brown
coloration above with heavy spotting on breast distinctive; _gray_
instead of brown on back as compared with the five members of the
_unalaschensis_ group.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a bulky affair of twigs, weed-stalks, grasses, etc.,
placed on ground or low in bushes of thicket. _Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4,
greenish brown sharply spotted or (rarely) blotched with chestnut. Av.
size .85 × .65 (21.6 × 16.5). _Season_: May-July; two broods.

General Range.—Rocky Mountain district of United States and British
Columbia west to and including the Cascade Mountains, the White
Mountains of southeastern California, and the mountains of
northeastern California; south in winter to New Mexico, Arizona, etc.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in the timbered districts of the
East-side and in the Cascade Mountains (west to Mt. Rainier).

Authorities.—[“Slate-colored sparrow,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884
(1885), 22]. Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II., p. 435.

The residents of Cannon Hill, in Spokane, are to be congratulated, not alone for their wealth, for Nature is not curious as to bank accounts, but for the rare good taste which has been displayed in utilizing the largess of Nature. Instead of going in with axe and shovel and fire-brand, first to obliterate the distinctive features of Nature and then rear mocking platitudes in mortar and stone upon her pale ashes, they have accepted the glory of her grim lava bastions and the grace of her unhewn pines; nor have they even despised the tangles of wild shrubbery, those decent draperies without which both tree and cliff would be overstark. To be sure the landscape artist with consummate skill has said to the piny sentinel, “Stand here!” and to the copse, “Sit there!” but he has not forgotten withal the primeval rights of the feathered aborigines. As a result _the birds approve_. What higher meed could mortal ask? Or where is there a better criterion of taste? Taken all in all I doubt if there is a more delightful spot in Washington in which to study bird life, certainly not within municipal bounds, than Cannon Hill affords.

Here, for instance, is this wood sprite, the very genius of the unravished wild; no one would think of looking for him in a city, yet of an early morning as the bird-man was passing along Seventh Avenue, he was arrested by the crisp and hearty notes of a Slate-colored Sparrow, coming from a bush in an artistically unkempt corner of the adjoining yard. In the half light, nothing in the pose and appearance of this bird would have induced an ornithologist to bestow a second glance upon the evident Song Sparrow, had it not been for the sweet and powerful challenge which poured from his earnest beak. _Ooree, rickit, loopiteer_, it said, with varied cadence and minor change, which gave evidence of no mean ability. There is something so forthright and winsome about the song of this modest bird, that the listener promptly surrenders “at discretion,” and begins to ask eager questions of his dainty captor.

A few yards further on three of these Sparrows were seen feeding on a well-kept lawn, but ready to skurry at a breath to the shelter of bush-clumps, thoughtfully provided. And all this in the first week in June, the very height of nesting time! With this as an example, what need to speak of Hammond Flycatchers, Mountain Chickadees, Catbirds, Pine Siskins, Audubon Warblers, Shufeldt Juncoes, Cassin Finches, Pygmy Nuthatches, American Crossbills, Cassin Vireos, Louisiana Tanagers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Olive-sided Flycatchers, Evening Grosbeaks, Violet-green Swallows, Black-chinned Hummingbirds, Bobwhites, and a host of commoner sorts, all residents of the same demesne? “Unto him that hath shall be given.” Unto these who have shown appreciation and consideration, has been given the friendship of the birds, and they deserve their good fortune.

On the 5th of June we visited a nest which had been located a few days before in a little aspen grove beyond Garden Springs. The nest was placed upon the ground at the base of a small tree, and it sat so high, without pretense of concealment, that it was plainly visible with all its contents two rods away.

The female was brooding, but upon our approach she slipped quietly off and left her three callow young to the tender mercies of the bird-man and his big glass eye, set at four feet, while she began searching for food upon the ground a yard or two away.

The male bird appeared, once, upon a bush some twenty feet away, making no hostile demonstration but beaming rather a hearty confidence, as who should say, “Well, I see you are getting along nicely at home; that’s right, enjoy yourselves, and I’ll finish up this bit of hoeing before supper.”

The mother bird, meanwhile, was uttering no complaint of the strange presence, preferring instead to glean food industriously from under the carpet of green leaves. Soon she returned, hopping up daintily. Standing upon the elevated brim of her nest she carefully surveyed her brood without proffer of food, as tho merely to assure herself of their welfare. I “snapped” and she retreated, not hastily, as tho frightened, but quietly as matter of reasonable prudence. Again and again during the hour I had her under fire, she returned to her brood. Each time she retired before the mild roar of the curtain shutter, never hastily or nervously, but deliberately and demurely. Thrice she fed her brood, thrusting her beak, which bore no external signs of food, deep down into the upturned gullets of the three children. Thrice she attempted to brood her babes, and very handsome and very motherly she looked, with fluffed feathers and mildly inquisitive eye; but the necessary movement following an exposure sent her away for a season.

When absent she neither moped nor scolded, but discreetly set about scratching for food, always within a range of ten or fifteen feet of the nest. At such times she would look up trustfully and unabashed. Upon the return she never flew, and there was nothing to advise the waiting camerist of her approach, save the rustle of leaves as she came hop, hopping, until she stood upon the familiar brim.

The opportunities for picture-making were simply unlimited, save for the weakness of the leaf-diluted light. Seldom have I been stirred to such admiration as in the case of this gentle mother _Schistacea_. So demure, so even-tempered, and so kindly a bird-person, with such a preserving air of gentle breeding, I have not often seen. It was an hour to be long remembered.

No. 64.
GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE.

A. O. U. No. 592.1. Oreospiza chlorura (Aud.).

Synonyms.—Green-tailed Finch. Blanding’s Finch.

Description.—_Adults_: Crown and occiput rich chestnut; forehead
blackish gray with whitish loral spot on each side; remaining
upperparts olive-gray tinged more or less with bright olive-green;
wings and tail with brighter greenish edgings; bend of wing,
axillaries and under coverts yellow; chin and throat white bordered by
dusky submaxillary stripe; sides of head and neck and remaining
underparts ashy gray, clearing to white on abdomen, tinged with buffy
or brownish on sides, flanks and crissum. Bill blackish above, paler
below; legs brown, toes darker; irides cinnamon. _Young birds_ are
brown above tinged with greenish and streaked with dusky but with
wings and tail much as in adult. Length of adult about 7.00 (177.8);
wing 3.15 (80); tail 3.30 (84); bill .50 (12.7); tarsus .94 (24).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; rufous crown, white throat; greenish
coloration of upperparts.