BREWER SPARROW
562. Spizella breweri. 5½ inches
Like the last species, the general tone of plumage of this is gray. It differs, though, in having the crown finely streaked with blackish. It is a more western species than the last and is rarely found east of the Rockies. It ranges from British Columbia southward into Mexico.
FIELD SPARROW
563. Spizella pusilla. 5½ inches
Bill pinkish brown; crown and ear covert brown with no black markings; back reddish brown and breast and sides washed with brown.
You will find these birds in dry pastures, stubble fields, and side hills. The hotter and dryer a place is, the better they seem to like it. They are often the only birds that will be found nesting on tracts of land recently burned over, upon which the sun beats down with stifling heat.
Song.—A series of shrill piping whistles on an ascending scale and terminating in a little trill, “swee-see-see-se-e-e.”
Nest.—A frail structure of grasses and weeds, lined with finer grasses; placed either on the ground or in bushes, briars or weed patches; four or five whitish eggs marked with reddish brown (.68 × .50).