A. O. U. No. 573 a. Amphispiza bilineata deserticola Ridgw.
Description.—Adults: Above brownish gray, browner on middle of back and on wings; a conspicuous white superciliary stripe bounded narrowly by black above and separated from white malar stripe (not reaching base of bill) by gray on sides of head; lores, anterior portion of malar region, chin, throat and chest centrally black, the last named with convex posterior outline; remaining underparts white tinged with grayish on sides and flanks; tail blackish, the outer web of outermost rectrix chiefly white, the inner web with white spot on tip, second rectrix (sometimes third or even fourth) tipped with white on inner web. Bill dusky; feet and legs brownish black. Young birds like adults but without black pattern of head markings; chin and throat white or flecked with grayish; breast streaked with same and back faintly streaked with dusky; some buffy edging on wing. Length of adults about 5.35 (135.9); wing 2.55 (65); tail 2.48 (63); bill .40 (10); tarsus .75 (19).
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; grayish coloration; strong white superciliary; black throat distinctive.
Nesting.—Not yet reported from Washington. “Nest in bushes, slight and frail, close to the ground; eggs 2-5, 0.72 × 0.58 (18.3 × 14.7), white with a pale greenish or bluish tinge, unmarked; laid in May, June and later” (Coues).
General Range.—Arid districts of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico west from western Texas to California north probably to southern Idaho and Washington; south, in winter to Chihuahua, Sonora and Lower California.
Range in Washington.—Probably summer resident in Upper Sonoran and Arid Transition life-zones; believed to be recently invading State from south.
Authority.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 483.
If one happens to be fairly well acquainted with the licensed musicians of the sage, the presence of a strange voice in the morning chorus is as noticeable as a scarlet golf jacket at church. The morning light was gilding the cool gray of a sage-covered hillside in Douglas County, on the 31st day of May, 1908, and the bird-man was mechanically checking off the members of the desert choir, Brewer Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow and the rest, as they reported for duty, one by one, when suddenly a fresh voice of inquiry, Blew chee tee tee, burst from the sage at a stone’s cast. The binoculars were instantly levelled and their use alternated rapidly with that of note-book and pencil as the leading features of the stranger’s dress were seized upon in order of saliency: Black chin and throat with rounded extension on chest outlined against whitish of underparts and separated from grayish dusky of cheeks by white malar stripe; lores, apparently including eye, black; brilliant white superciliary stripe; crown and back warm light brown.
The newcomer was a male Desert Sparrow and the interest aroused by his appearance was considerably heightened when it was recalled that he was venturing some five hundred miles north of his furthest previously recorded range. This bird, probably the same individual, was seen and heard on several occasions subsequent thruout a stretch of half a mile bordering on Brook Lake. Once a female was glimpsed in company with her liege lord, flitting coquettishly from bush to bush; but the most diligent search failed to discover a nest, if such there was. Nesting was most certainly on the gallant’s mind for he sang at faithful intervals. The notes of his brief but musical offering had something of the gushing and tinkling quality of a Lark Sparrow’s. A variant form, whew, whew, whiterer, began nicely but degenerated in the last member into the metallic clicking of Towhee.
We have here, in all probability, another and a very conspicuous example of that northward trend of species which we shall have frequent occasion to remark. The passion of the North Pole quest is not merely a human weakness; it is a deep-rooted instinct which we only share with the birds. There was once a near-Eden yonder, a Pliocene paradise, from which the cruel ice evicted us—birds and men—long, long ago. We go now to reclaim our own.
No. 45.
SAGE SPARROW.
A. O. U. No. 574.1. Amphispiza nevadensis (Ridgw.).
Synonyms.—Artemisia Sparrow. Nevada Sage Sparrow.
Description.—Adults: Upperparts (including auriculars and sides of neck) ashy gray to ashy brown, clearer and grayer anteriorly, browner posteriorly; pileum, back and scapulars sharply and narrowly streaked with black; wings and tail dull black with light brownish or pale grayish edging; the rectrices marked with white much as in preceding species; a supraloral spot, an orbital ring and (usually) a short median line on forehead white; sides of head slaty gray; lores dusky; underparts white, clearest on throat where bounded and set off from white of malar area by interrupted chain of dusky streaks, occasionally with dusky spot on center of breast, marked on sides and flanks with buffy and streaked with dusky; edge of wing pale yellow or yellowish white. Bill blackish above, lighter below; legs dark brown, toes darker; iris brown. Young: “Pileum, hindneck, chest and sides, as well as back, streaked with dusky; otherwise essentially as in adults” (Ridgway). Underparts save on throat sometimes tinged with yellowish or buffy. Length of adult male about 6.00 (152.4); wing 3.11 (79); tail 2.95 (75); bill .39 (10); tarsus .84 (21.5). Female a little smaller.
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size (barely); ashy gray plumage; white throat defined by dusky streaks.
Nesting.—Nest: of twigs, sage bark, and “hemp” warmly lined with wool, rabbit-fur, cow-hair or feathers, placed low in crotch of sage bush. Eggs: 3-5, usually 4, brownish- or greenish-gray as to ground, dotted, spotted or clouded, rarely scrawled, with chestnut or sepia and with some purplish shell markings. Av. size .80 × .60 (20.3 × 15.2). Season: April, June; two broods.
General Range.—Great Basin region of the Western United States, west to eastern base of Sierra Nevada, east to eastern base of Rockies, north (at least) to northern Washington; south, in winter, into southern Arizona, etc.
Range in Washington.—Upper Sonoran and Arid Transition life zones in eastern Washington north at least to the Grand Couleé; summer resident.
Authorities.—[“Sagebrush Sparrow” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), 22.] Amphispiza belli nevadensis, Dawson, Wilson Bulletin, No. 39, June, 1902, p. 65. Ss¹. Ss².
Specimens.—U. of W. P.
Thank God for the sage-brush! It is not merely that it clothes the desert and makes its wastes less arid. No one needs to apologize for the unclad open, or to shun it as tho it were an unclean thing. Only little souls do this,—those who, being used to small spaces, miss the support of crowding elbows, and are frightened into peevish complaint when asked to stand alone. To the manly spirit there is exultation in mere space. The ground were enough, the mere Expanse, with the ever-matching blue of the hopeful sky. But when to this is added the homely verdure of the untilled ground, the cup of joy is filled. One snatches at the sage as tho it were the symbol of all the wild openness, and buries his nostrils in its pungent branches to compass at a whiff this realm of unpent gladness. Prosy? Monotonous? Faugh! Back to the city with you! You are not fit for the wilderness unless you love its very wormwood.
Taken in Douglas County. Photo by W. Leon Dawson.
SAGE SPARROW ON NEST.
THIS BIRD WAS NOT THE VICTIM OF THE MISFORTUNE MENTIONED IN THE TEXT.
The sage has interest or not, to be sure, according to the level from which it is viewed. Regarded from the supercilious level of the man-on-horseback, it is a mere hindrance to the pursuit of the erring steer. The man a-foot has some dim perception of its beauties, but if his errand is a long one he, too, wearies of his devious course. Those who are best of all fitted to appreciate its infinite variety of gnarled branch and velvet leaf, and to revel in its small mysteries, are simple folk,—rabbits, lizards, and a few birds who have chosen it for their life portion. Of these, some look up to it as to the trees of an ancient forest and are lost in its mazes; but of those who know it from the ground up, none is more loyal than the Sage Sparrow. Whether he gathers a breakfast, strewn upon the ground, among the red, white, and blue, of storkbill, chickweed, and fairy-mint, or whether he explores the crevices of the twisted sage itself for its store of shrinking beetles, his soul is filled with a vast content.