_Emberiza belli_, CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. V, Oct. 1850, 104,
pl. iv (San Diego, Cal.). _Poospiza belli_, SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl.
Soc. 1857, 7.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 470.—HEERM. X, s. p. 46.
_Zonotrichia belli_, ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, pl.
xiv.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 204.
SP. CHAR. Upper parts generally, with sides of head and neck, uniform
bluish-ash, tinged with yellowish-gray on the crown and back, and with
a few very obsolete dusky streaks on the interscapular region. Beneath
pure white, tinged with yellowish-brown on the sides and under the
tail. Eyelids, short streak from the bill to above the eye, and small
median spot at the base of culmen, white. A stripe on the sides of the
throat and spot on the upper part of the breast, with a few streaks on
the sides, with the loral space and region round the eyes,
plumbeous-black. Tail-feathers black; the outer edged with white.
Wing-feathers all broadly edged with brownish-yellow; the elbow-joint
tinged with yellowish-green. Bill and feet blue. Length, 5.70; wing,
2.80; tail, 2.90. (Largest specimen, 6,338 ♂, Cosumnes River).
HAB. Southern California.
The colors are softer and more blended in the autumn; the young are
obsoletely streaked on the breast.
HABITS. Bell’s Finch has apparently a more restricted distribution
than the Black-throated species, and is resident wherever found. It
has been met with at Posa Creek, Cal., by Dr. Heermann, at Fort Thorn
by Dr. T. C. Henry, and along the Colorado River by Drs. Kennerly and
Möllhausen. It has likewise been found in Southern California, as far
north as Sacramento Valley, and in the valley of the Gila.
Dr. Cooper states that all the extensive thickets throughout the
southern half of California are the favorite resorts of this bird.
There they apparently live upon small seeds and insects, indifferent
as to water, or depending upon what they obtain from dews or fogs.
They reside all the year in the same localities, and were also
numerous on the island of San Nicolas, eighty miles from the mainland.
In spring the males utter, as Dr. Cooper says, a low monotonous ditty,
from the top of some favorite shrub, answering each other from long
distances. Their nest he found about three feet from the ground,
composed of grasses and slender weeds, lined with hair and other
substances. The eggs, four in number, he describes as pale greenish,
thickly sprinkled over with reddish-brown dots. At San Diego he found
the young hatched out by May 18, but thinks they are sometimes
earlier. It is also a common bird in the chaparral of Santa Clara
Valley, and also, according to Dr. Heermann, along the Cosumnes River.
In Arizona, according to Dr. Coues, it is rather uncommon about Fort
Whipple, owing to the unsuitable nature of the locality, but is
abundant among the sage-brush of the Gila Valley, where it keeps much
on the ground, and where its movements are very much like those of a
_Pipilo_.
Drs. Kennerly and Möllhausen met with these Sparrows on the Little
Colorado River, in California, December 15. They were found during
that month along the banks of the river wherever the weeds and bushes
were thick. It was never observed very far from the water, and its
food, at that season, seemed to consist of the seeds of various kinds
of weeds. Its motions were quick, and, when started up, its flight was
short, rapid, and near the earth.
Dr. Heermann states that in the fall of 1851 he found this species in
the mountains bordering the Cosumnes River, and afterwards on the
broad tract of arid land between Kerr River and the Tejon Pass, and
again on the desert between that and the Mohave River. He often found
them wandering to a great distance from water. With only a few
exceptions, these were the only birds inhabiting the desolate plains,
where the artemisia is the almost exclusive vegetation. When
undisturbed, it chants merrily from some bush-top, but, at the
approach of danger, drops at once to the ground and disappears in the
shrubbery or weeds. Its nest he found built in a bush, composed of
twigs and grasses, and lined with hair. The eggs, four in number, he
describes as of a light greenish-blue, marked with reddish-purple
spots, differing in intensity of shade.
Poospiza belli, var. nevadensis, RIDGWAY.