360 Birds of Colorado 



Description. — Male in summer — General colour above dusky brown, 

 vrith paler, cliiefly greyish-buffy edgings to the feathers ; crown very 

 dark with a narrow median, whitish stripe ; superciliary stripe to top 

 of the eye and edge of the wing bright yellow ; a dusky postocular 

 stripe ; below whitish, faintly tinged with birff on the throat and breast, 

 not striped ; iris brown, upper mandible dusky, lower mandible pale 

 brown, legs pale horn. Length 4-5 ; wing 2-3 ; tail 1-60 ; culmen -5 ; 

 tarsus -7. 



The sexes are aUke ; after the autumn moult tlie colours are much 

 brighter, there is a good deal of chestnut and less black on the upper- 

 parts, while below the buffy wash is much more clearly marked and 

 extends on to the flanks. A young bird is like the winter male, but 

 does not at first have the yellow on the edge of the wing and over the 

 eye, and the chest is distinctly streaked with dusky. 



Distribution. — The western United States, breeding from Minnesota 

 and Iowa to California, south in winter to Mexico and Costa Rica. 



The Grasshopper-Sparrow does not appear to be a common bird in 

 Colorado, or else it has escaped the notice of observers through its 

 likeness to the Savannah and Baird's Sparrows. There are four Colorado 

 examples in the Aiken collection, all obtained in El Paso co. on the 

 plains on July 15th and 20th, August 8th and September 24th, the 

 latter apparently a young bird in freshly moulted plumage. At Barr, 

 Hersey and Rockwell state that it is not uncommon and nests. Cooke 

 says that it reaches the State in the middle of May, though in his " dates 

 of arrival," on p. 18, he notes it from Loveland on April 21st on the 

 authority of W. G. Smith. One taken by Bragg near Haystack Butte 

 in the plains of Boulder co., is now in the State collection at Denver 

 (Henderson). 



Habits. — Like Baird's Sparrow this is a thoroughly 

 terrestrial form, frequenting old fields and skulking 

 in the rank herbage. It derives its generic name from 

 its likeness to a diminutive Quail (Coturnix), and its 

 vernacular name from its peculiar chirring note, Uke 

 that of a grasshopper, Allen found it nesting abun- 

 dantly near Fort Hays in central Kansas, and took 

 several sets of fresh eggs, usually five in number, 

 between June 3rd and 10th. 



Genus PASSER HERBULUS. 

 Small Sparrow-like birds resembling Passerculus, but with the tail 

 nearly or quite as long as the wing and much graduated ; the feathers 

 narrow and pointed ; ninth primary shorter than the seventh. 



