_Emberiza bilineata_, CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. Ph. V, Oct. 1850, 104,
pl. iii, Texas.—IB. Illust. I, v, 1854, 150, pl. xxiii. _Poospiza
bilineata_, SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1857, 7.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am.
1858, 470.—IB. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 15.—HEERM. X, c. 14.—COOPER,
Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 203.
[Line drawing: _Poospiza bilineata._
6316]
SP. CHAR. Above uniform unspotted ashy-gray, tinged with light brown;
purer and more plumbeous anteriorly, and on sides of head and neck.
Under parts white, tinged with plumbeous on the sides, and with
yellowish-brown about the thighs. A sharply defined superciliary and
maxillary stripe of pure white, as also the lower eyelid, the former
margined internally with black. Loral region black, passing insensibly
into dark slate on the ears. Chin and throat between the white
maxillary stripes black, ending on the upper part of the breast in a
rounded outline. Tail black, the lateral feathers edged externally and
tipped on inner web with white. Bill blue. Length, 5.40; wing, 2.75;
tail, 2.90. Sexes alike.
HAB. Middle Province of United States north to 40°, between Rocky
Mountains and Sierra Nevada. (As far west as Janos and the Mohave
villages.) Matamoras (rare at San Antonio; DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 488).
This species in external form is very similar to _P. belli_, and will
probably fall in the same genus. The cutting edges of the bill are
much inflexed. The first quill is shorter than the sixth. The tail is
a good deal rounded; the feathers broad.
The white maxillary stripe does not come quite to the base of the
under jaw, which there is black. There is a hoary tinge on the
forehead. The white superciliary stripes almost meet on the forehead.
In the immature bird the throat is white with a dusky clouding along
each side; the upper part of the breast streaked with brown.
HABITS. The Black-throated Sparrow, generically associated with Bell’s
Finch, has several well-marked distinctive peculiarities in habits.
Their eggs are also totally unlike those of the present species, being
much more like those of the _Peucæa_ and of _Leucosticte griseinucha_,
and, like them, white and unspotted.
This species was first described by Mr. Cassin from specimens obtained
in Western Texas by John W. Audubon, and its habitat was at first
supposed to be restricted to the valleys of the Rio Grande and the
Gila, but more recent explorations show it to have a much wider
distribution. It is found from Western Texas through part of Mexico,
New Mexico, the Indian Territory, and Arizona, to Southern California,
and towards the north throughout the region of the Great Basin to an
extent not yet fully determined. In portions at least of this
territory it is migratory, and only resident in the summer months.
Mr. Dresser found this Sparrow very abundant during July and August in
the mesquite thickets in the town of Matamoras. In December it was
equally common at Eagle Pass, but at San Antonio it was quite a rare
bird. He only observed it on two or three occasions at a rancho on the
Medina River, and late in June a nest and four eggs were obtained.
Between Laredo and Matamoras, after crossing the Nueces, he found
these birds very numerous, and near Laredo met with several nests,
some containing young and some eggs nearly hatched. One taken on the
20th of July contained three fresh eggs, probably indicating a second
laying. This nest was in a low bush, carefully concealed. It was
composed of straws and lined with fine roots. The eggs, when fresh,
were nearly white, with a delicate bluish tinge. On his journey down
the river he found many nests, all empty or containing young. Some of
these were partially lined with cotton. Though not wild, the birds
were so restless that he found it difficult to shoot them. Dr.
Woodhouse obtained one specimen on the Rio Pedro, in Texas.
In Mexico this Sparrow was found by Lieutenant Couch to be numerous in
parts of Tamaulipas, Nueva Leon, Coahuila, and other States on the Rio
Grande, immediately south and west of the limits of the territory of
the United States. It was first seen at Santa Rosalio, and specimens
obtained, though none were noticed at Brownsville, only twenty miles
east, during a month’s residence. At Charco Escondido, forty miles
farther in the interior, it was very plentiful, and although it was
early in March, had already reared a brood of young, one specimen
appearing to be a young bird only a few weeks old. Its favorite home
appeared to be the scattered mesquite, on the plains east of the
Sierra Madre. During the warm hours of the day it does not seek the
shade, but may always be found chirping and hopping from one bush to
another. South of Cadoreita the birds disappeared, but after a month’s
loss of their company he again met with them among some flowering
_Leguminosa_, between Pesquieria and Rinconada. He thus found it
several times entirely absent from districts of considerable extent,
but always reappearing again throughout his journey. The usual note of
this bird, at the season in which he met with it, was a simple chirp;
but on one occasion, having halted during a norther in Tamaulipas, he
heard a “gay little black-throated fellow,” regardless of the bitter
wind, from the top of a yellow mimosa then in bloom, give utterance to
a strain of sprightly and sweet notes, that would compare favorably
with those of many more famed songsters.
Dr. Coues found this Sparrow very abundant in the southern and western
portions of Arizona, though rare at Fort Whipple, where the locality
was unsuited to it, as it seemed to prefer open plains, grassy or
covered with sagebrush.
Mr. J. H. Clarke, who met with these birds in Tamaulipas, Texas, and
New Mexico, speaks of them as abundant and widely distributed. He
found them on the lower Rio Grande, but more abundantly in the
interior, seeming to prefer the stunted and sparse vegetation of the
sand-hills and dry plains to the cottonwood groves and willow thickets
of the river valleys, where they were never seen. They would be very
inconspicuous did not the male occasionally perch himself on some
topmost branch and pour forth a continuous strain of music. In the
more barren regions they were the almost exclusive representatives of
the feathered tribes.
Dr. Heermann first remarked this Finch near Tucson, in Arizona, where
he found it associated with other Sparrows in large flocks. They were
flying from bush to bush, alighting on the ground to pick up
grass-seeds and insects. They were quite numerous, and he traced them
as far into Texas as the Dead Man’s Hole, between El Paso and San
Antonio.
Dr. Cooper found a few of these birds on the treeless and waterless
mountains that border the Colorado Valley, in pairs or in small
companies, hopping along the ground, under the scanty shrubbery. In
crossing the Providence Range, in May, Dr. Cooper found their nest,
containing white eggs.
Both species of _Poospiza_, the _belli_ and the _bilineata_, according
to Mr. Ridgway, are entirely peculiar in their manners, habits, and
notes. Both, he states, are birds characteristic of the arid artemisia
plains of the Great Basin, and, with the _Eremophila cornuta_, are
often the only birds met with on those desert wastes. The two species,
he adds, are quite unlike in their habits and manners. They each have
about the same extent of habitat, and even often frequent the same
locality. While the _P. bilineata_ is partial to dry sandy situations,
inhabiting generally the arid _mesa_ extending from the river valleys
back to the mountains, the _P. belli_ is almost confined to the more
thrifty growth of the artemisia, as found in the damper valley
portions. The _P. belli_ is a resident species, and even through the
severest winters is found in abundance. The _P. bilineata_ is
exclusively a summer bird, one of the latest to come from the South,
and much the more shy of the two; its manners also are quite
different.
Both birds have one common characteristic, which renders them worthy
of especial remark. This is the peculiar delivery and accent, and the
strange sad tone of their spring song, which, though unassuming and
simple, is indeed strange in the effect it produces. This song, so
plaintive and mournful, harmonizes with the dull monotony of the
desert landscape.
Mr. Ridgway states that the _P. bilineata_ is not so abundant as the
other species, and is more retiring in its habits. It principally
frequents the desert tracts and sandy wastes, on which are found only
the most stunted forms of sage-brush. Its song, though quite simple,
is exceedingly fine, its modulation being somewhat like
_wut´-wut´-ze-e-e-e-e-e_, the first two syllables being uttered in a
rich metallic tone, while the final trill is in a lower key, and of
the most liquid and tremulous character imaginable. This simple chant
is repeated every few seconds, the singer being perched upon a bush.
He adds that this bird arrives on the Truckee Reservation about the
13th of May. The nest is built in sage-bushes, and the eggs are found
from the 7th to the 21st of June. The nests are usually about one foot
from the ground, or thereabouts.
The eggs vary in size from .70 by .55 of an inch to .75 by .60. They
are of a rounded-oval shape, and of a pure white with a slight tinge
of blue, somewhat resembling the eggs of the Bachman Finch.
Poospiza belli, SCLATER.