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.
Habits. This species bears a very close resemblance to the S. pallida in its external appearance, but there are certain constant differences which, with the peculiarities of their distinctive distributions and habits, seem to establish their specific separation. The present bird is found from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains, and from the northern portion of California to the Rio Grande and Mexico. Dr. Kennerly found it in February, 1854, throughout New Mexico, from the Rio Grande to the Great Colorado, along the different streams, where it was feeding upon the seeds of several kinds of weeds.
Dr. Heermann, while accompanying the surveying party of Lieutenant Williamson, between the 32d. and 35th parallels, found these Sparrows throughout his entire route, both in California and in Texas. On the passage from the Pimos villages to Tucson he observed large flocks gleaning their food among the bushes as they were moving southward. In the Tejon valley, during the fall season, he was constantly meeting them associated with large flocks of other species of Sparrows, congregated around the cultivated fields of the Indians, where they find a bountiful supply of seeds. For this purpose they pass the greater part of the time upon the ground.
Dr. Woodhouse also met with this Sparrow throughout New Mexico, wherever food and water were to be found in sufficient quantity to sustain life.