HARRIS' SPARROW 1263 



enclosure, while the winds whipped the feeder around like a merry- 

 go-round. 



When feeding on the ground, the birds kick and scratch among the 

 dead leaves and debris much like towhees and fox sparrows. When 

 flushed, they fly out ahead of the intruder, lighting in the trees 50 to 

 100 feet ahead until he approaches again, passing and repassing one 

 another, and finally circling back to their original weed patch. A 

 flock frequently includes a mixture of Harris' and tree sparrows, 

 j uncos, goldfinches, a small number of song sparrows, and one or 

 two cardinals. 



At banding stations they are among the most charming and interest- 

 ing of guests. Amiable, unsuspicious, easy to catch, quiet in the hand, 

 they rarely struggle and never bite. When released, they often lie 

 quietly in the outstretched hand, to the delight of visiting school 

 children, and finally fly up to the nearest branch or bush. 



Both in migration and on the wintering grounds, Harris' sparrows 

 are proverbial repeaters. Swenk and Stevens (1929) and O. A. 

 Stevens (1957) relate the frequency of their repeats to weather, their 

 length of stay in the area, individual personality, and group habits. 

 At Stillwater, birds whose territory lay near the traps repeated several 

 times a day. Others repeated only occasionally in snowy weather, 

 or not at all until another year, suggesting that they came from a 

 greater distance and only when driven by food shortage. 



Harris' sparrows appear to have personalities as variable as man 

 himself. While some are quiet and meek, others are domineering 

 and aggressive. Some are mild and easily handled, others become 

 wild and difficult to catch in a trap. These latter I found became 

 increasingly warier through the season, and developed characteristic 

 patterns of evasion as recognizable as a color band or an albinistic 

 feather. Eventually I caught the rest of the day's crop and let this 

 one out the door on his own power. It is these wary individuals 

 that escape the occasional shrike that gets into a trap. Their ability 

 to dodge and dart, so exasperating when a cold, hungry bander is 

 trying to empty his traps, means life and safety when the pursuer is 

 a cold, hungry predator. 



On the nesting grounds the birds become universally shy and wary, 

 as previously discussed, so different from the innocent, unsuspicious 

 behavior of many of their northern neighbors that one wonders what 

 grizzly experience in migration may have altered their character. 



Voice. — One of the pleasures of a home in rural Oklahoma is the 

 flute-like chorus of the Harris' sparrows. Well named querula, the 

 song has a tender, melancholy quality, and simplicity unique in my 

 experience. Throughout the fall and winter an occasional plaintive, 

 quavering, two-toned whistle can be heard from the weedy thicket 



