Young birds lack the parti-colored head-stripes of the adult, altho the pattern is sketched in browns; and they are best identified by the unfailing solicitude of the parents, which attends their every movement. They are rather bumptious little creatures for all; a company of them romping about a pasture fence brings a wholesome recollection of school-boy days, and there are girls among them, too, for my! how they giggle!
No. 55.
MOUNTAIN SONG SPARROW.
A. O. U. No. 581 b. Melospiza melodia montana (Henshaw).
Description[19].—Adults: Crown dull bay streaked with black and divided by ashy-gray median stripe; rufous brown post-ocular and rictal stripes, enclosing grayish-brown auriculars; remaining upperparts ashy-gray varied by reddish brown, the gray due to broad edgings of feathers and occupying from one-half to two-thirds the total area according to season, feathers of back and scapulars sharply streaked with blackish centrally; wings and tail brown varied by minor markings and edgings of dusky, brownish gray and ashy-gray; below white, or sordid, heavily streaked on sides of throat, breast and sides by blackish and rufous, markings wedge-shaped, tear-shaped or elongated, confluent on sides of throat as maxillary stripes and often on center of breast as indistinct blotch. Bill horn-color above, lighter below; feet pale brown, toes darker; iris brown. Young: Like adults but duller, all markings less sharply defined, streaks of underparts narrower. Length of adult male (skins): 6.00 (150); wings 2.73 (69.3); tail 2.74 (69.6); bill .48 (12.2); tarsus .88 (22.4).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; heavy streaking of breast and back, with varied head markings, distinctive; lighter, grayer and more sharply streaked as compared with M. m. merrilli.
Nesting.—As next.
General Range.—“Rocky Mountain district of the United States west to and including the Sierra Nevada, in California; north to eastern Oregon, southern Idaho and southern Montana; south in winter to western Texas and northern Mexico” (Ridgway). Probably also north into British Columbia and southwestern Alberta.
Range in Washington.—Migrant and winter resident along eastern borders.
Authorities.—? Snodgrass, Auk, XX. 1903, 207. W. T. Shaw in epist., Dec. 31, 1908. Sr?
Specimens.—P¹ (32 spec.).
Whether or not the Song Sparrows of northern Montana and eastern British Columbia are typical montana, the doctors must settle; but certain it is that sparrows of a type decidedly lighter, that is, ashier, in coloration, than our merrilli, pass thru our eastern borders during migrations. Of such a bird, examined narrowly at Spokane on November 4, 1905, my note-book says (comparing at every point with merrilli): “Ashy gray and brown of head strongly contrasting; ashy of back and scapulars very extensive, brown areas of feathers not exceeding one-third their total width; underparts clearer white; streaking lighter rusty and more sharply defined, more narrow on sides.”
No. 56.
MERRILL’S SONG SPARROW.
A. O. U. No. 581 k. Melospiza melodia merrilli (Brewster).
Synonyms.—Dusky Song Sparrow. Silver-tongue.
Description.—Characters intermediate between those of M. m. montana and M. m. morphna. In general, darker than preceding with plumage more blended, proportion of gray in back about one-third; lighter than next, not so brown, streakings more distinct.
Nesting.—Nest: a substantial structure of twigs, grasses, coiled bark-strips, dead leaves, etc.; lined carefully with fine dead grass, rootlets or horse-hair, placed indifferently in bushes or on the ground. Eggs: 4-6, usually 5, greenish-, grayish-, or bluish-white, heavily spotted and blotched with reddish browns which sometimes conceal the background. Av. size .83 × .61 (21 × 15.5). Season: April-July; two or three broods.
General Range.—The eastern slopes of the Cascades from northern California to southern British Columbia, east (at least) to northern Idaho.
Range in Washington.—East-side—theoretically inclusive. Specimens from the central valleys of the Cascades may be called morphna and those from the Palouse country montana, at pleasure.
Authorities.—M. fasciata guttata, Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, VII. 1882, 227, 229. D¹. Ss¹. J.
Specimens.—P¹.
This, the connecting link between montana and morphna, is the characteristic Song Sparrow of eastern Washington, and abounds along timbered water courses and in all cultivated districts. While closely resembling the Rusty Song Sparrow of the West-side, it may be distinguished from it by the sharper color pattern of its plumage; and the points of divergence from montana are maintained with substantial uniformity, at least along the eastern slopes of the Cascades, and in the northern tier of counties.
Altho subjected to considerable rigors in winter, this species is partially resident, being largely confined during the cold season to the shelter of tule beds, wild rose thickets, clematis bowers, and the like. Nesting begins about the second week in April and continues with undiminished ardor till July or August. Incubation requires twelve days, and the young are ready to fly in as many more, so that a devoted pair is able to raise three and sometimes four broods in a season.
At this rate we should be overrun with Song Sparrows if there were not so many agencies to hold the species in check. A young Song Sparrow is the choice morsel of everything that preys,—cats, skunks, weasels, chipmunks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Crows, Magpies, Black-headed Jays, and garter snakes. How would this motley company fare were it not for the annual crop of Song Sparrows? And the wonder of it is that the brave heart holds out and sings its song of trust and love with the ruins of three nests behind it and the harvest not yet past.
