A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
Lockhart, and in the Red River settlements by Mr. C.
A. Hubbard and Mr. Donald Gunn.
Captain Blakiston noted the arrival of this bird at Fort Carlton on
the 21st of May. He speaks of its note as very peculiar, resembling,
though sharper than, the buzzing made by a fly in a paper box, or a
faint imitation of the sound of a watchman’s rattle. This song it
utters perched on some young tree or bush, sometimes only once, at
others three or four times in quick succession.
Their nests appear to have been in all instances placed in trees or in
shrubs, generally in small spruces, two or three feet from the ground.
In one instance it was in a clump of small bushes not more than six
inches from the ground, and only a few rods from the buildings of Fort
Resolution.
Both this species and the _S. breweri_ were found by Lieutenant Couch
at Tamaulipas in March, 1855. It does not appear to have been met with
by any other of the exploring expeditions, but in 1864, for the first
time, as Dr. Heermann states, to his knowledge, these birds were found
quite plentiful near San Antonio, Texas, by Mr. Dresser. This was in
April, in the fields near that town. They were associating with the
_Melospiza lincolni_ and other Sparrows. They remained about San
Antonio until the middle of May, after which none were observed.
The eggs of this species are of a light blue, with a slight tinge of
greenish, and are marked around the larger end with spots and blotches
of a purplish-brown, rather finer, perhaps, than in the egg of _S.
socialis_, though very similar to it. They average .70 of an inch in
length, and vary in breadth from .50 to .52 of an inch.
Spizella pallida, var. breweri, CASSIN.
BREWER’S SPARROW.
_Emberiza pallida_, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 66, pl. cccxcviii, f.
2.—IB. Synopsis, 1839.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 71, pl. clxi
(not of SWAINSON, 1831). _Spizella breweri_, CASSIN, Pr. A. N.
Sc. VIII, Feb. 1856, 40.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858,
475.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 209.
SP. CHAR. Similar to _S. pallida_; the markings including the nuchal
collar more obsolete; no distinct median and superciliary light
stripes. The crown streaked with black. Some of the feathers on the
sides with brown shafts. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.50. Young streaked
beneath, as in _pallida_.
HAB. Rocky Mountains of United States to the Pacific coast.
This race is very similar to the _S. pallida_, and requires close and
critical comparison to separate it. The streaks on the back are
narrower, and the central ashy and lateral whitish stripes of the
crown are scarcely, if at all, appreciable. The clear unstreaked ash
of the back of the neck, too, is mostly wanting. The feathers along
the sides of the body, near the tibia, and occasionally elsewhere on
the sides, have brownish shafts, not found in the other. The
differences are perhaps those of race, rather than of species, though
they are very appreciable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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