As diligently as I have searched for this species, I have never found a specimen in the summer months[17], nor is there any record of the bird’s nesting in Washington. This is the more remarkable in that the type form (Z. leucophrys) breeds extensively “thruout the high mountain districts of the western United States” (Ridgway), exclusive of Washington and Oregon, southward to the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, “northward to northern California (Mount Shasta, etc.).” In view of this, one may feel free to suggest that the Camp Harney record[18], referred to gambelii, is really referable to the typical form, and that as such it represents a northern extension of leucophrys, rather than a southern extension of gambelii.
No. 54.
NUTTALL’S SPARROW.
A. O. U. No. 554 b. Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli Ridgw.
Synonyms.—Formerly called Gambel’s Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow (name properly confined to Z. leucophrys). Crown Sparrow.
Description.—Adults: Like preceding but general tone of coloration much darker; streaks of back and scapulars deepest brown or blackish; general ground-color of upperparts light olive-gray; median crown-stripe narrower, dull white; underparts more strongly washed with brownish gray; axillaries and bend of wing more strongly yellow; bill yellowish with dark tip. Immature: Similar to that of preceding form, but underparts yellowish; upperparts light olive buff; crown-stripe cinnamomeous, or pale chestnut. Very young birds are more extensively black-streaked above, and finely streaked below on chin, throat, chest, and sides; bill brighter yellow; feet paler. Length of adult males, 5.90-6.70 (150-170); wing 2.95 (75); tail 2.83 (72); bill .43 (11); tarsus .93 (23.5). Females smaller.
“A MILITARY GENTLEMAN IN A GRAY CLOAK.”
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; black-and-white striping of crown distinctive in range; much darker than preceding.
Nesting.—Nest: on ground or low in bushes; rarely in trees up to 25 feet; a rather pretentious structure of bark-strips, dead grass, and rootlets, with a lining of fine dead grass and horse-hair; measures externally 6 in. wide by 4 deep; internally 2½, wide by 1 deep. Eggs: 4 or 5, pale bluish white, profusely dotted and spotted, or blotched, with varying shades of reddish brown. Av. size .86 × .64 (21.8 × 16.3). Season: Last week in April, and May 25-June 10; two broods.
General Range.—Pacific Coast district, breeding from Monterey, California, to Fort Simpson, British Columbia; south in winter to San Pedro Martir Mountains, Lower California.
Range in Washington.—Of general distribution west of the Cascade Mountains at lower altitudes; casually winter resident.
Migrations.—Spring: March 25-April 1.
Authorities.—Z. gambelii Gambel, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 461. (T.) C&S. L¹.(?) L². Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. B. BN. E.
When you enter a bit of shrubbery at the edge of town in May or June, your intrusion is almost sure to be questioned by a military gentleman in a gray cloak with black-and-white trimmings. Your business may be personal, not public, but somehow you feel as if the authority of the law had been invoked, and that you would better be careful how you conduct yourself in the presence of this military person. Usually retiring, the Nuttall Sparrow courts exposure where the welfare of his family is in question, and a metallic scolding note, zink, or dzink, is made to do incessant service on such occasions. A thoroly aroused pair, worms in beak, and crests uplifted, may voice their suspicions for half an hour from fir-tip and brush-pile, without once disclosing the whereabouts of their young.
Nuttall’s Sparrow is the familiar spirit of brush-lots, fence tangles, berry patches, and half-open situations in general. He is among the last to quit the confines of the city before the advancing ranks of apartment houses and sky-scrapers, and he maintains stoutly any vantage ground of vacant lot, disordered hedge-row, or neglected swamplet left to him. After the Rusty Song Sparrow, he is perhaps the commonest Sparrow in western Washington—unquestionably so within the borders of settlement.
As a songster this Sparrow is not a conspicuous success, altho he works at his trade with commendable diligence. He chooses a prominent station, such as the topmost sprig of a fir sapling, and holds forth at regular intervals in a prosy, iterative ditty, from which the slight musical quality vanishes with distance. Hee ho, chee weé, chee weé chee wééé and Hee, wudge, i-wudge i-wudge i-wéééé are vocalized examples. The preliminary hee ho is sometimes clear and sweet enough to prepare one’s ear for the Vesper Sparrow’s strain, but the succeeding syllables are tasteless, and the trill with which the effort concludes has a wooden quality which we may overlook in a friend but should certainly ridicule in a stranger. We are humbled in view of the vocal limitations of this bird when we recall that the voice of the White-crowned Sparrow (Z. leucophrys), of which ours is a local race, is noted for its sweet, pure quality. Surely our bird has caught a bad cold.
In selecting a nesting site, the Nuttall displays a marked difference of taste from the Rusty Song Sparrow, in that it selects a dry situation. The first nest, prepared during the third week in April, is almost invariably built upon the ground. A slight hollow is scratched at the base of a bush or sapling, and a rather pretentious structure of bark strips, dried grasses and rootlets is reared, with a lining of fine grass and horse-hair. A nest found on Flat-top was set in high grass at the foot of a tiny oak sapling, and was composed externally of dried yarrow leaves with a few coarse grasses; internally of fine coiled grass of a very light color, supplemented by four or five white gull feathers. The eggs, four or five in number, are of a handsome light green or bluish green shade, and are heavily dotted, spotted, or blotched with reddish brown.
Taken in Seattle. Photo by the Author.
FEMALE NUTTALL SPARROW.
A second set is prepared a month or so later than the first, and occasionally a third. Second nests are built, as likely as not, in bushes or trees; and Mr. Bowles has taken them as high as twenty-five feet from the ground.