338 



FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



The habits of the Harris sparrow are largely common to those of 

 the genus. In describing them Colonel Goss says: "The birds 

 inhabit the thickets bordering streams and the edges of low wood- 

 lands. They are usually met with in small flocks. A favorite resort 

 is in and about the brush heaps, where the land is being cleared. 

 They seldom mount high in the trees, but keep near the ground, 

 upon which they hunt and scratch among the leaves for seeds and 

 insect life. 



" They commence singing early in the spring, and upon warm, 

 sunshiny days their song can be heard almost continually, as one 

 after the other pours forth its pleasing, plaintive, whistling notes, in 

 musical tone much like the white-throated sparrow, but delivered 

 in a widely diiferent song." Prof. Cooke says that in addition to 

 their albicollis whistle they have a ' queer, chuckling note.' (See 

 Cooke on " Distribution and Migration of Zonotrichia querula," 

 The Auk, i. 332.) 



554. Zonotrichia leueophrys (Forst.). White-crowned Spar- 

 row. 

 Adult male. — Top and sides of head striped with black and white, white 



median stripe usually as wide as 

 adjoining- black stripes ; lores black, 

 white superciliary stripe not extend- 

 ing- forward of eye ; edge of wing 

 ivhite ; under parts plain gray ; back 

 with fore parts g-ray ; rump brown. 

 Adult female: like male and some- 

 times indisting-uishable, but usually 

 with median crown stripe narrower 

 and grayer. Young : like adults, but 

 head stripes brown and huffy instead 

 of black and white ; under parts, 

 buffy, and chest, sides of throat, and 

 sides streaked. Male : length (skins) 

 5.S4-6.74, wing 2.98-3.28, tail 2.68- 

 3.23, bill .43-.47. Female: length 

 (skins) 6.00-6.63, wing 2.89-3.17, tail 

 2.69-3.00, bill .41-.47. 



Distribution. — Breeds in Upper 

 Canadian zone in the United States 

 and Canada, from Quebec and Labra- 

 dor north to Hudson Bay and Green- 

 land and throughout most of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, 

 south to New Mexico and Arizona ; winters south through the United 

 States and Lower California to Guanajuato, Mexico. 



Nest. — On or near ground, in sub-alpine meadows, often in willows 

 along streams, made of fine twigs, rootlets, and grasses. Fggs : 3 to 5, 

 pale greenish blue, varying to brownish, spotted with reddish brown. 



Food. — Caterpillars, ants, wasps, and weed seed, including that of 

 Johnson grass and ragweed. 



The white-crowned sparrow is preeminently the sparrow of the 



From Biological Survej% U. S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture. 



Fig. 426. 



