Hab. Middle Province of United States north to 40°, between Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada. (As far west as Janos and the Mohave villages.) Matamoras (rare at San Antonio; Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 488).
This species in external form is very similar to P. belli, and will probably fall in the same genus. The cutting edges of the bill are much inflexed. The first quill is shorter than the sixth. The tail is a good deal rounded; the feathers broad.
The white maxillary stripe does not come quite to the base of the under jaw, which there is black. There is a hoary tinge on the forehead. The white superciliary stripes almost meet on the forehead.
In the immature bird the throat is white with a dusky clouding along each side; the upper part of the breast streaked with brown.
Habits. The Black-throated Sparrow, generically associated with Bell’s Finch, has several well-marked distinctive peculiarities in habits. Their eggs are also totally unlike those of the present species, being much more
like those of the Peucæa and of Leucosticte griseinucha, and, like them, white and unspotted.
This species was first described by Mr. Cassin from specimens obtained in Western Texas by John W. Audubon, and its habitat was at first supposed to be restricted to the valleys of the Rio Grande and the Gila, but more recent explorations show it to have a much wider distribution. It is found from Western Texas through part of Mexico, New Mexico, the Indian Territory, and Arizona, to Southern California, and towards the north throughout the region of the Great Basin to an extent not yet fully determined. In portions at least of this territory it is migratory, and only resident in the summer months.
Mr. Dresser found this Sparrow very abundant during July and August in the mesquite thickets in the town of Matamoras. In December it was equally common at Eagle Pass, but at San Antonio it was quite a rare bird. He only observed it on two or three occasions at a rancho on the Medina River, and late in June a nest and four eggs were obtained. Between Laredo and Matamoras, after crossing the Nueces, he found these birds very numerous, and near Laredo met with several nests, some containing young and some eggs nearly hatched. One taken on the 20th of July contained three fresh eggs, probably indicating a second laying. This nest was in a low bush, carefully concealed. It was composed of straws and lined with fine roots. The eggs, when fresh, were nearly white, with a delicate bluish tinge. On his journey down the river he found many nests, all empty or containing young. Some of these were partially lined with cotton. Though not wild, the birds were so restless that he found it difficult to shoot them. Dr. Woodhouse obtained one specimen on the Rio Pedro, in Texas.
In Mexico this Sparrow was found by Lieutenant Couch to be numerous in parts of Tamaulipas, Nueva Leon, Coahuila, and other States on the Rio Grande, immediately south and west of the limits of the territory of the United States. It was first seen at Santa Rosalio, and specimens obtained, though none were noticed at Brownsville, only twenty miles east, during a month’s residence. At Charco Escondido, forty miles farther in the interior, it was very plentiful, and although it was early in March, had already reared a brood of young, one specimen appearing to be a young bird only a few weeks old. Its favorite home appeared to be the scattered mesquite, on the plains east of the Sierra Madre. During the warm hours of the day it does not seek the shade, but may always be found chirping and hopping from one bush to another. South of Cadoreita the birds disappeared, but after a month’s loss of their company he again met with them among some flowering Leguminosa, between Pesquieria and Rinconada. He thus found it several times entirely absent from districts of considerable extent, but always reappearing again throughout his journey. The usual note of this bird, at the season in which he met with it, was a simple chirp; but on one occasion, having halted during a norther in Tamaulipas, he heard a “gay little black-throated
fellow,” regardless of the bitter wind, from the top of a yellow mimosa then in bloom, give utterance to a strain of sprightly and sweet notes, that would compare favorably with those of many more famed songsters.