BLACK-CHINNED SPARROW. Spizella atrogularis (Cabanis)

Field characters.—Size near that of Chipping Sparrow. Tail as long or longer than body. Head and neck and most of under surface of body plain dark gray; middle of back reddish brown, streaked with black; wings and tail plain blackish brown. Chin black and bill reddish brown in male. Voice: Song of male a series of high-pitched wiry notes, all on about the same key, beginning slowly but running together at the end, tseey, tseey, tsey, tse, se-se-se; call note a low sharp chit.

Occurrence.—One bird heard in song near Black's Creek, west of Coulterville, May 11, 1919. Possibly present in small numbers as a summer visitant in Upper Sonoran Zone on west side of mountains. Lives in greasewood chaparral.

Our inclusion of the Black-chinned Sparrow as a member of the Yosemite avifauna rests upon our hearing the characteristic song of the male repeatedly on the one occasion instanced above. This sparrow is moderately common on many of the chaparral covered hillsides of southern California, but it has not previously been reported from any locality along the west flank of the Sierra Nevada. Careful search of the greasewood brush (Adenostoma) between Pleasant Valley and Coulterville would likely reveal the presence of the species in small numbers.