HARRIS' SPARROW 1269 



Oct. 3, 1936, was taken at Woodward, Okla., November 21, having 

 covered the 600 miles in 49 days, or 12.2 miles per day. A bird banded 

 at Fargo, N. Dak., on October 2 was recovered at Yankton, S. Dak., 

 270 miles and 21 days later, having averaged 13 miles per day. Slightly 

 better time was made by one banded at Tower City, N. Dak., October 

 21 and recovered at Le Mars, Iowa, 300 miles southward, November 

 10, an average of 15 miles per day. Two others banded at Fargo, 

 N. Dak., October 23 and 24 were still tarrying in South Dakota, a 

 scant 100 and 125 miles south, 7 weeks later in mid-December. 



Swenk and Stevens (1929) write: "The results at Fargo indicate 

 that the adults move southward more promptly than the immatures. 

 About 90 per cent of the adults arrived by October 5, but only 50 to 

 60 per cent of the immatures (94 and 60 per cent in 1927, 88 and 48 

 per cent in 1928)." Stevens later (1957) comments that the individual 

 length of stay, as judged by the capture of repeats, varied from 1 to 

 10 days, with an extreme of 24 days, and the average varied from year 

 to year from 4.3 to 7.6 days. 



Winter. — From their careful examination of a vast accumidation of 

 records, Swenk and Stevens (1929) outline the species' normal winter 

 range as extending primarily south of latitude 41° from southeastern 

 Nebraska through Kansas and Oklahoma to central Texas, overlap- 

 ping into western Missouri and northwestern Arkansas, a narrow strip 

 some 200 by 900 miles between the 94th and 100th meridians, and north 

 of the 28th parallel. A few birds often linger north of the 41st parallel 

 well after the main migration has moved on. In his 32 years of ob- 

 servations in southern South Dakota and adjoining Iowa, William 

 Youngworth (1959) has recorded the species 43 times in December, 

 6 times in January (including one flock of 20 birds), once in February 

 and once in early March. He believes the birds are encouraged to 

 remain by the urban development and the planting of trees and 

 shrubs in these plains states, but that they probably move southward 

 when the weather becomes bitter. In the Bird Banding files are 

 records of three Harris' sparrows found frozen in haystacks at North- 

 ville and Ipswich, S. Dak., during January and February 1936. 



The earliest fall record for the species at Stillwater, Okla., is October 

 24, but the species usually arrives here in the heart of the winter range 

 during the first week of November. Graphs charting the daily arrivals 

 of individuals at the Stillwater banding station show the period from 

 early November through the first half of December as a series of peaks 

 with new birds appearing almost daily. Most of these birds are 

 migrants that repeat at the traps only a few times or perhaps remain a 

 week or two before disappearing forever. At the same time many of 

 the regular winter residents, both new and returns, are arriving. 



