364 Birds of Colorado 



Description. — Male — Top of the head, face and throat black ; sides 

 of the head and ear-coverts light brown ; back and rump brown, the 

 former streaked with darker ; wings and tail dijsky, the middle and 

 greater-coverts tipped with white, forming a wing-band ; below white, 

 becoming pale brown on the flanks, which are streaked more or less 

 with chestnut and dusky ; iris brown, bill coral-red, legs light brown. 

 Length 7-25 ; wing 3-5 ; tail 3-25 ; culmen -52 ; tarsus -OO. 



The female resembles the male — wing 3-25 ; a young bird has the 

 black crown-feathers edged with grey, the throat and chest white, 

 the latter spotted with dusky. 



Distribution. — Middle North America, breeding on the shores of 

 Hudson Bay and south across the great plains and Mississippi Valley, 

 to winter in Texas. 



A rare straggler in Colorado in winter or on migration ; a male in 

 autumn dress, mingled with a flock of Juncos, was shot near Pueblo, 

 October 19th, 1886, by Beckham; and Cooke observed one near Holly, 

 in the south-east corner of the State, on May 10th, migrating with 

 White-crowned Sparrows. Smith reports a female shot by W. C. Ferril, 

 October 9th, 1907, near Kit Carson, in Cheyenne co., associating with 

 a flock of Tree- and Vesper-Sparrows, while there are two Colorado 

 examples in the Colorado College Museum — one from Salida, taken 

 December 15th, 1907, by J. W. Frey, and another from Butte, El Paso 

 CO., taken January 24th, 1908, by C. E. Aiken. 



White-crowned Sparrow. Zonotrichia leucophrys. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 554— Colorado Records— Allen 72, pp. 156, 163 ; 

 Aiken 72, p. 200 ; Trippe 74, p. 155 ; Henshaw 75, p. 260 ; Scott 79, 

 p. 94 ; Minot 80, p. 229 ; Drew 81, p. 138 ; 85, p. 16 ; Tresz 81, p. 246 ; 

 Allen & Brewster 83, p. 191 ; Beckham 85, p. 141 ; Morrison 88, p. 74 ; 

 89, p. 37 ; Kellogg 90, p. 89 ; Anthony 91, p. 379 ; McGregor 97, p. 38 ; 

 Cooke 97, pp. 18, 102, 214 ; Keyser 02, pp. 54, 238, 281 ; Henderson 

 03, p. 236 ; 09, p. 236 ; Oilman 07, p. 157 ; Warren 08, p. 23 ; 

 Rockwell 08, p. 172. 



Description. — Adult Male — Crown with a median white stripe separat- 

 ing two broad lateral black ones ; these are produced over the lores 

 and cut off the narrow, white superciliary stripe in front ; a narrow, 

 postocular black stripe bounds the superciliary stripe below ; hind- 

 neck, breast and back, ashy-grey, striped with dark brown ; rump and 

 tail plain brown, wings dusky, edged with paler or rufous ; the middle 

 and greater coverts white-tipped, forming a double wing-band ; below 

 the ashy becomes whitish on the chin and abdomen, with a wash of pale 

 buffy on the flanks and under tail-coverts ; iris brown, bill reddish- 

 brown, dusky at the tip ; legs homy-brown. Length 6-65 ; wing 

 3-30; tail 3-0; culmen -5; tarsus -85. 



