RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROW. Aimophila ruficeps ruficeps (Cassin)

Field characters.—Size of Junco, but tail and wings shorter. No contrasted white markings; top of head reddish brown (rufous) (pl. 8l); plumage brown toned, tinged with rufous on back; line over eye ashy gray; chin buffy white, bordered on each side by black line extending a little way downward from bill; otherwise no streaks or markings of any sort beneath. Movements quick and frequent. Seldom flies far; keeps closely within protection of low bushes. Voice: Song of male resembling in general effect song of Lazuli Bunting; both sexes utter a slow series of notes, kiew, kiew, kew-kew-kew; last of the series fainter, and quality throughout nasal.

Occurrence.—Resident in small numbers and locally, in Upper Sonoran Zone. Found by us at Pleasant Valley and El Portal. Lives on dry sun-facing hillsides among low scattered shrubs (not in dense or high chaparral). To be met with in pairs or singly, never in flocks.

The Rufous-crowned Sparrow is a bird of the chaparral belt, but, unlike the Wren-tit it lives exclusively in open stands of low bushes on the driest slopes. Such tracts are to be found on the sun-facing slopes at the heads of the smaller ravines. The bird is not known to us to occur in the dense brush at any time. These areas of dwarf chaparral are quite limited in extent in the Yosemite section and the Rufous-crowned Sparrows are restricted in like measure. They seem to be strictly resident and are as likely to be found in the particular locality of their choice in winter as in summer. We observed the birds at only two places, Pleasant Valley and El Portal, but careful search of the foothill districts would doubtless show them to be present in many other localities of similar nature.

The Rufous-crowned Sparrow resembles in some ways the Bell and Nevada Sage sparrows, but yet it differs from these birds in certain noteworthy respects. It is decidedly brown rather than grayish in tone of color, it possesses a reddish brown crown patch (pl. 8l), and it has no dark spot on the chest. Its niche is different from that of either of the species named, and it does not habitually perch in prominent view on the tops of bushes as do the other two birds.

The song of the male Rufous-crowned Sparrow is rarely heard. It is somewhat like that of the Lazuli Bunting but is weaker and less elaborate. For singing the bird will perch a foot or so above the ground on the top of one of the small bushes of the neighborhood, where it will sing a few times and then take itself off to forage. Its curious whining or nasal call note, as described above, is uttered by both sexes and as a rule without any apparent cause, such as danger.

Nesting activities with the Rufous-crowned Sparrows are evidently commenced in April. We found no occupied nests, but on the 25th of May, 1915, near Pleasant Valley, we obtained a fully fledged juvenile bird. The young birds do not differ greatly in appearance from their parents. The plumage, as is generally the case with juvenile birds, is laxer, the crown is not so bright and the breast is narrowly streaked with blackish. These differences, accompaniments of immaturity, disappear at the first fall molt.

Our attention was attracted to the young bird just mentioned by our hearing a pair of adults uttering their nasal notes in a rapid scolding series, unlike the usual slow enunciation. Meanwhile the birds kept hopping about in a concerned manner in the low brush on a ravine side. A Bell Sparrow and a Lazuli Bunting were calling close by, but the notes of these birds did not indicate so great a degree of solicitude as was evinced by the voices and behavior of the adult Rufous-crowns. While we were cautiously approaching the focus of the commotion, a California Gray Fox suddenly broke from cover in the bottom of the little cañon. The parent Rufous-crowns were quite justified in finding his presence a cause of concern; there were evidently other juveniles of that species in the brush beside the one we found.

A Rufous-crowned Sparrow was seen in some thick brush on the side of a small cañon near El Portal on the morning of November 25, 1914. Its brownish coloration, light stripe over eye, light throat, and quick movements reminded the observer of the San Joaquin Bewick Wren. While moving close about the observer and on the alert, this sparrow was seen to fluff out and then press down its feathers; and the rufous feathers of the crown of the head were held continually in a slightly elevated position. The faint call note was given several times while the bird was in view, and from time to time other birds of the same species were heard calling in the vicinity.