1887.] PKOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 675 



paring tliese with the series in the U. S. National Museum, I lind that 

 but two of the birds are typical grammacus, both of w^hich were taken at 

 San Antonio, while the remaining five are easily referable to the paler 

 western form. The remarks under the specific form will, therefore, apply 

 equally well to this one. 



Genus ZONOTRICHIA Swainson. 



183. Zonotrichia querula (NUTT.). Harris's Sparrow. 



Upon my arrival at San Antonio in December I found this sparrow 

 one of the most abundant and conspicuous inhabitants of the luxuriant 

 fringe of vegetation that bordered the San Antonio Kiver, which I 

 never visited without seeing and hearing very many of them. Dres- 

 ser, to my surprise, merely states that it occurs there " in the spring 

 when on its migration north." It is hardly possible to believe that he 

 could have overlooked so common a winter bird, and the only inference 

 I can draw from his statement is that, like the Lark Finch and many 

 other species, it was not there in winter at the time he collected — 

 another fact which goes to prove that our avifaunas are constantly 

 undergoing geographical changes. The habits of these birds appear to 

 be quite similar to those of other Zonotrichice, except that they seemed 

 to be somewhat quicker and livelier in their movements, and their song 

 is not so much like a funeral dirge as those of the Vv'hite-throat and the 

 White-crowned. 



Only once did I see any of them in the mesquite, but they were al- 

 ways to be found in numbers up to the middle of March along the river. 

 They were singing a great deal through the winter, but I think they 

 were all young birds iiracticiug and testing their vocal powers. The 

 call note is a very sharp and metallic "clink," quite difierent from that 

 of other members of the genus. All of those shot were young birds in 

 immature plumage, but towards the last of February the specimens 

 taken were almost in the adult spring plumage. 1 did not see any at 

 Corpus Christi or Leon Springs, but saw a small party of them at Bee- 

 villeon February 14. At Boerne, Brown found it very abundant dur- 

 ing the winter. 



184. Zonotrichia leucophrys (Forst.). White-crowned Sparrow. 



This Sparrow was probably the most abundant bird I saw in Texas. 

 In fact they were tediously common and interfered very much with the 

 observation of other species. At San Antonio it seemed that every 

 small thicket and patch of weeds along the river, and every clump of 

 bushes in the mesquite gave shelter to a party of White-crowned Spar- 

 rows. They were almost as familiar as the European Sparrow — an un- 

 known pest in western Texas — coming about the houses and gardens 

 with the same here-I-am-at home sort of air. At Beeville there was a 

 flock of twenty or thirty which had taken up their quarters in the small 

 back yard of the hotel there. They sang a good deal during the win- 

 ter, but all of the thirty or forty specimens taken seemed to be young 



