Captain Blakiston noted the arrival of this bird at Fort Carlton on the 21st of May. He speaks of its note as very peculiar, resembling, though sharper than, the buzzing made by a fly in a paper box, or a faint imitation of the sound of a watchman’s rattle. This song it utters perched on some young tree or bush, sometimes only once, at others three or four times in quick succession.
Their nests appear to have been in all instances placed in trees or in shrubs, generally in small spruces, two or three feet from the ground. In one instance it was in a clump of small bushes not more than six inches from the ground, and only a few rods from the buildings of Fort Resolution.
Both this species and the _S. breweri_ were found by Lieutenant Couch at Tamaulipas in March, 1855. It does not appear to have been met with by any other of the exploring expeditions, but in 1864, for the first time, as Dr. Heermann states, to his knowledge, these birds were found quite plentiful near San Antonio, Texas, by Mr. Dresser. This was in April, in the fields near that town. They were associating with the _Melospiza lincolni_ and other Sparrows. They remained about San Antonio until the middle of May, after which none were observed.
The eggs of this species are of a light blue, with a slight tinge of greenish, and are marked around the larger end with spots and blotches of a purplish-brown, rather finer, perhaps, than in the egg of _S. socialis_, though very similar to it. They average .70 of an inch in length, and vary in breadth from .50 to .52 of an inch.
_Emberiza pallida_, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 66, pl. cccxcviii, f. 2.—IB. Synopsis, 1839.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 71, pl. clxi (not of SWAINSON, 1831). _Spizella breweri_, CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. VIII, Feb. 1856, 40.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 475.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 209.
SP. CHAR. Similar to _S. pallida_; the markings including the nuchal collar more obsolete; no distinct median and superciliary light stripes. The crown streaked with black. Some of the feathers on the sides with brown shafts. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.50. Young streaked beneath, as in _pallida_.
HAB. Rocky Mountains of United States to the Pacific coast.
This race is very similar to the _S. pallida_, and requires close and critical comparison to separate it. The streaks on the back are narrower, and the central ashy and lateral whitish stripes of the crown are scarcely, if at all, appreciable. The clear unstreaked ash of the back of the neck, too, is mostly wanting. The feathers along the sides of the body, near the tibia, and occasionally elsewhere on the sides, have brownish shafts, not found in the other. The differences are perhaps those of race, rather than of species, though they are very appreciable.