BIRDS OF KANSAS. 45 1 



Chondestes grammacus (Say). 



LARK SPARROW. 

 PLATE XXVIII. 



Summer resident; abundant. Arrive in April; begin laying 

 the middle to last of May; return in October. 



B. 344. R. 204. C. 281. G, 102, 222. U. 5.52. 



Habitat. Mississippi valley; north to Iowa, Wisconsin and 

 Michigan (western Manitoba. Seton)\ west to tlie plains; east 

 regularly to Indiana, western Kentucky, etc. ; casually eastward 

 to near the Atlantic coast; south in winter through eastern 

 Texas to the Gulf coast, and eastward to Florida; accidental to 

 Key West. 



Sp. Char. "Hood chestinit, tinged with black toward the forehead, and 

 with a median stripe and superciliary stripe of dirty whitish. Rest of upper 

 parts grayish olive, the interscapular region alone streaked with dark brown. 

 Beneath white; a round spot on the upper part of the breast, a broad maxillary 

 stripe, cutting off a wliite stripe above, and a short line from the bill to the eye, 

 continued faintly behind it, black. A white crescent under the eye, bordered 

 below by black and behind by chestnut on the ear coverts. Tail feathers dark 

 brown, the outermost edged externally and with more than terminal third white, 

 with transverse outline; the white decreasing to the next to Innermost, tipped 

 broadly with white. The colors of the female are duller than in the male, the 

 chestnut less bright, the black not so intense; the pattern, however, is the same. 

 The young bird has the breast and throat with a good many spots of dark 

 brown, instead of the single large one on the breast. The other markings are 

 more obscure." 



stretch of 



Length. wing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 6.75 11.10 3.50 3.00 .78 .50 



Female... 6.40 10.50 3.25 2.60 .78 .45 



Iris brown; bill — upper dusky, under bluish white; legs flesh 

 color; feet a shade darker; claws brown. 



This is one of the most abundant birds of our prairies, fre- 

 quenting alike the high, dry plains, the cultivated fields and open 

 groves; a beautiful, confiding bird, that seems to seek rather 

 than shun the presence of man, often nesting in the gardens and 

 door yards. Dr. Wheaton, in his ' ' Keport of the Birds of Ohio, ' ' 

 says: 



"Birds in trouble sometimes appeal to man for assistance. 

 In the summer of 1875, I was attracted by the singular move- 

 ments of one of these birds, which flew before me, frequently 



