Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America

by John Cassin

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Callipepla. Wagler in Isis, 1832, p. 277. Callipepla squamata. (Vigors.) Ortyx squamatus. Vig. Zool. Jour., V. p. 275. (1830.) Callipepla strenua. Wagler, Isis, XXV. p. 278. (1832.) Tetrao cristata. Llave, Registro Trimestre, I. p. 144. (1832.)

Form. Robust, body compressed; head with long, erectile, crest-like feathers; bill rather strong, curved; wings short, with the fourth quill slightly longest, tertiaries long; tail rather long, ample, rounded; legs and feet moderate; tongue pointed, very acute at the tip; nostrils large.

Dimensions. Total length of skins, 8½ to 9 inches; of specimens in spirits (from Capt. French), 10 inches; wing, 4½; tail 3¼ inches.

Colors. Head light yellowish cinereous, with a tinge of brown; feathers of the crest broadly tipped with white. All other parts of the plumage light bluish ash color, paler on the under parts and nearly white on the abdomen; nearly every feather of the under parts and of a wide ring around the back of the neck, with a central arrow-head, of brownish black, and with a narrow but very distinct edging of the same. Flanks with longitudinal central stripes, and in some specimens with circular spots of white. Middle of the abdomen frequently with a large spot of pale chestnut; under tail-coverts nearly white, with longitudinal stripes of dark ash and brown. Quills light ashy-brown; shorter tertiaries frequently edged with yellowish-white on their inner webs; bill, black; irides, hazel; tarsi, brownish lead-colored. The width of the white tips of the feathers of the crest varies in different specimens. Sexes very nearly alike; female slightly paler, and not so fully crested.

Hab. Texas and New Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington.

Obs. This species does not resemble any other at present known, and is therefore easily recognized. It is the type of Wagler’s genus Callipepla, in which are also arranged the California Partridge and Gambel’s Partridge.

Plate 20
The Brown-headed Finch
Ammodromus ruficeps (Cassin)

AMMODROMUS RUFICEPS.—Cassin.
The Western Swamp Sparrow.
PLATE XX.—Adult Male.

The only information that we can present to the reader respecting the bird now before him, is, that specimens were brought from California in the collections made by Mr. Bell and Dr. Heermann. It appears to have been overlooked by all other naturalists,—a circumstance probably not to be attributed to its rarity in its native country, so much as to the character of the localities in which it lives during the greater part of the year, in common with other species of the same family.

The little birds of the group to which this species belongs, of which there are several, are all of humble and unpretending appearance, and live in the vicinity of the shores of the ocean and the margins of streams of fresh water, and hence have been designated Swamp Sparrows. The flats, or other low and level tracts, overgrown with reedy or sedgy vegetation, in the vicinity of the sea-shore, are the favorite resorts of two or three species throughout a large portion of the entire extent of the Atlantic coast of the United States; while somewhat similar localities along rivers or smaller streams, or even swamps and marshes in the interior, afford appropriate habitations for others. In these they subsist mainly on seeds of grasses and such other plants as usually abound in those situations, and occasionally on insects. The Swamp Sparrow, first described by the celebrated ornithologist, Wilson (Ammodromus palustris), is the best known of these birds, and is abundant in all suitable localities, during the summer season, throughout the greater part of the older States of the Union. In winter, it migrates southward, and is found in large numbers along the Mississippi river in the south, and other streams in the southern States. The Swamp Sparrows have no song, other than a few rather remarkable and not unmusical notes.

Dr. Heermann remarks of this bird: “In the fall of 1851, I met with a single specimen of this bird, in company with a flock of Sparrows of various kinds. In the spring of 1852, I found it quite abundant on the Calaveras river, where I procured several specimens. Its flight appeared feeble, and when raised from the ground, from which it would not start until almost trodden upon, it would fly a short distance, and immediately drop again into the grass. Its notes are a ditty, resembling that of our Chipping Sparrow (E. socialis), and were heard towards the spring season.”

In our plate this bird is represented of the size of life.

The plant is a western species of Ipomea, which was raised from the seed by our esteemed friend, Mr. Robert Kilvington, of Philadelphia, to whose kindness we are indebted for the privilege of figuring it and other plants for the plates of the present work.