158 ZONOTRICHIA QIIERULA, HARRIS'S FINCH. 



just had a cold snap and a storm. No doubt this sent them trooping 

 off; but however this may be, I am satisfied that not a single individual 

 passed the winter in the vicinity. 



The cohl in winter becomes intense at Fort Randall, the thermometer 

 sometimes marking thirty or forty degrees below zero. The surround- 

 ing country is "flat, windy, and comfortable," furnishing as bleak and 

 dreary a prospect as can well be imagined. Even the shelter afforded 

 by the thick undergrowth and low position of the river-bottom, de- 

 fended as it is in a measure by bluffs and hills, is insufficient to allure 

 any but a few of the hardiest birds to pass the inclement season. The 

 river freezes solid, and the water-birds betake themselves elsewhere; 

 some Hawks and Owls remain, indeed, but the other winter laud-birds 

 of the immediate vicinity, as far as I have made them out, may almost 

 be counted on the fingers. There are Sharp-tailed (Trouse in plenty, 

 and Quails too, though these smaller birds sometimes freeze to death. 

 There is a stray pinnated Grouse now and then. Sorry looking Crows 

 wing about and croak dismally, and gangs of Magpies screech noisily 

 through the trees. Snow-birds fleck the open, with Shore-larks, during 

 a part of the season, and probably Longspurs ; troops of Tree Sparrows 

 cower under the bushes. Cheery companies of Titmice stand the cold, 

 and Hairy Woodpeckers hammer at the old cotton woods as industriously 

 as ever. A Shrike is seen now and then o his patient perch ; but here- 

 about the short list ends. 



The following spring, at the time I suppose the Finches came back 

 to Fort Randall, I was too busy, writing portions of this work and 

 attending to other matters incident to my transfer to a different field 

 of operations, to look after them ; and it was not until late in Septem- 

 ber of the same year that I found the birds again and secured my flrsc 

 specimens. This time I was encamped on the Mouse River, in Northern 

 Dakota, and with the onset of the migration among the Fnngillidw 

 came Harris's Finches in plenty. Where they came from I have no 

 idea, further than that it was north of 49- ; for, singular as it may 

 appear, the breeding range of the species continues undiscovered, and 

 nobody has yet seen the nest or eggs. I presume the bird has some 

 special, restricted breeding localities, of which, in due time, we shall 

 learn. The birds came from the north, just as the White-throat does, 

 silently and unperceived ; all at once the shrubbery along the river- 

 bottom was thronged with them, as well as with Lincoln's and Ridg- 

 way's Finches. In their general ai)pearance they recall Fox Si)arrows, 

 being so large and somewhat reddish-colored, with heavy dark mark- 

 ings underneath, when seen from a distance. They go in little troops, 

 loitering in the patches of briers that lead out from the continuous 

 undergrowth into the ravines making down to the streams ; and their 

 habit, when disturbed, of mounting the topmost twigs of the bushes to 

 gain a better view, together with their size, renders them very con- 

 spicuous. They had no song at this season, nor indeed any note 

 excepting a weak chirj). 1 saw none with completely black head and 

 •throat, as in spring, although at the same season a certain portion of 

 the Ridgway Sparrows were in complete dress. The following descrip- 

 tion of the ordinary fall plumage is given, as no sufficient account of it 

 has yet api)eared : 



Male. — Bill, light reddish-brown, paler at base below ; feet, flesh-colored, obscured on 

 the toes ; eyes, brown. Crown, grayish-black, every feath.er with a distinct, narrow, 

 pale gray edge all around, producing a peculiar effect; this area bounded with a light 

 ochrey-browu superciliary and frontal line. Sides of head like the superciliary, but 

 the auricular patch rather darker grayish-brown, and the loral region obscurely 



