Genus Callipepla. Wagler in Isis, 1832, p. 277.
Callipepla squamata. (Vigors.)
Ortyx squamatus. Vig. Zool. Jour., V. p. 275. (1830.)
Callipepla strenua. Wagler, Isis, XXV. p. 278. (1832.)
Tetrao cristata. Llave, Registro Trimestre, I. p. 144. (1832.)
Form. Robust, body compressed; head with long, erectile, crest-like
feathers; bill rather strong, curved; wings short, with the fourth quill
slightly longest, tertiaries long; tail rather long, ample, rounded;
legs and feet moderate; tongue pointed, very acute at the tip; nostrils
large.
Dimensions. Total length of skins, 8½ to 9 inches; of specimens in
spirits (from Capt. French), 10 inches; wing, 4½; tail 3¼ inches.
Colors. Head light yellowish cinereous, with a tinge of brown; feathers
of the crest broadly tipped with white. All other parts of the plumage
light bluish ash color, paler on the under parts and nearly white on the
abdomen; nearly every feather of the under parts and of a wide ring
around the back of the neck, with a central arrow-head, of brownish
black, and with a narrow but very distinct edging of the same. Flanks
with longitudinal central stripes, and in some specimens with circular
spots of white. Middle of the abdomen frequently with a large spot of
pale chestnut; under tail-coverts nearly white, with longitudinal
stripes of dark ash and brown. Quills light ashy-brown; shorter
tertiaries frequently edged with yellowish-white on their inner webs;
bill, black; irides, hazel; tarsi, brownish lead-colored. The width of
the white tips of the feathers of the crest varies in different
specimens. Sexes very nearly alike; female slightly paler, and not so
fully crested.
Hab. Texas and New Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus.,
Washington.
Obs. This species does not resemble any other at present known, and is
therefore easily recognized. It is the type of Wagler’s genus
_Callipepla_, in which are also arranged the California Partridge and
Gambel’s Partridge.
[Illustration: Plate 20
The Brown-headed Finch
Ammodromus ruficeps (_Cassin_)]
AMMODROMUS RUFICEPS.—Cassin.
The Western Swamp Sparrow.
PLATE XX.—Adult Male.
The only information that we can present to the reader respecting the
bird now before him, is, that specimens were brought from California in
the collections made by Mr. Bell and Dr. Heermann. It appears to have
been overlooked by all other naturalists,—a circumstance probably not to
be attributed to its rarity in its native country, so much as to the
character of the localities in which it lives during the greater part of
the year, in common with other species of the same family.
The little birds of the group to which this species belongs, of which
there are several, are all of humble and unpretending appearance, and
live in the vicinity of the shores of the ocean and the margins of
streams of fresh water, and hence have been designated Swamp Sparrows.
The _flats_, or other low and level tracts, overgrown with reedy or
sedgy vegetation, in the vicinity of the sea-shore, are the favorite
resorts of two or three species throughout a large portion of the entire
extent of the Atlantic coast of the United States; while somewhat
similar localities along rivers or smaller streams, or even swamps and
marshes in the interior, afford appropriate habitations for others. In
these they subsist mainly on seeds of grasses and such other plants as
usually abound in those situations, and occasionally on insects. The
Swamp Sparrow, first described by the celebrated ornithologist, Wilson
(_Ammodromus palustris_), is the best known of these birds, and is
abundant in all suitable localities, during the summer season,
throughout the greater part of the older States of the Union. In winter,
it migrates southward, and is found in large numbers along the
Mississippi river in the south, and other streams in the southern
States. The Swamp Sparrows have no song, other than a few rather
remarkable and not unmusical notes.
Dr. Heermann remarks of this bird: “In the fall of 1851, I met with a
single specimen of this bird, in company with a flock of Sparrows of
various kinds. In the spring of 1852, I found it quite abundant on the
Calaveras river, where I procured several specimens. Its flight appeared
feeble, and when raised from the ground, from which it would not start
until almost trodden upon, it would fly a short distance, and
immediately drop again into the grass. Its notes are a ditty, resembling
that of our Chipping Sparrow (_E. socialis_), and were heard towards the
spring season.”
In our plate this bird is represented of the size of life.
The plant is a western species of _Ipomea_, which was raised from the
seed by our esteemed friend, Mr. Robert Kilvington, of Philadelphia, to
whose kindness we are indebted for the privilege of figuring it and
other plants for the plates of the present work.