FLNCHES 



53 



until he appears to be really overcome by the 

 effort." 



From the plains to the coast the l.ark Sparrow- 

 is lighter colored than east of the plains. This 

 makes a subspecies, according to the ornitholo- 

 gist ; and the western form is named the Western 

 Lark Sparrow {Chondcstcs grauimacus striga- 

 tus). There is. however, no [practical difference 

 in the habits, song, and beauty of eastern and 

 western birds. 



It is very likely that the l.ark Sparrow will 

 extend his range eastward in much the same 

 way as has the Prairie Horned Lark. Being a 

 grassland bird the prairie land was the home of 



the bird before man broke up the eastern forests 

 and made meadows and pastures suitable for 

 liomes for grassland birds. Man's progress into 

 the West, creating a continuous area of grass- 

 land all the way west to the prairies, has 

 made it possible for the prairie birds to find con- 

 genial homes further east. So as man has gone 

 west, some of the western birds have come east. 

 The food of this Sparrow is made up of seeds 

 of weeds, .grasses, and grain, with about 27 per 

 cent, of insects. It is considered to be one of 

 the most valuable of the S])arrows as a destrover 

 of grasshoppers. 



L. Nelson Nichols. 



HARRIS'S SPARROW 

 Zonotrichia querula (Nuttall) 



A. O. U, Number 5,53 



Other Names. — Hnod-crowned Sparrow : FSIack- 

 hood. 



General Description. — Length, 7'i inches. Upper 

 parts, brown, streaked with blackish ; under parts, white. 

 Bill, small, compressed-conical : wings, lonu and 

 pointed; tail, about the length of wing, rounded or 

 slightly double rounded. 



Color. — Adults : Crown, cheek region, chin, and 

 throat, uniform black, this extended over center portion 

 of chest in the form of a broad streaking or spotting; 

 sides of head, dull brownish buf¥y becoming more 

 grayish on sides of neck and nearly white next to the 

 black throat-patch, relieved by an irregular blackish or 

 dark brownish spot just back of upper rear portion of 

 ear region ; hindneck, brownish varied with blackish ; 

 upper parts, light brown or buffy hair-brown ; the back 

 and shoulders, broadly streaked with brownisli black ; 

 middle and greater wing-coverts, tipped with white 



iir buffy white, producing two distinct bands; under 

 parts (except chin, throat, and center portion of chest), 

 white, becoming dull hnt'a'iiish huffy on sides and flanks, 

 where streaked witli l)rown or dusky; iris, brown. 

 Immature (young in first winter?) : Crown with 

 feathers black centrally, but margined witli pale grayish 

 buffy, producing a consi)icuously scaly effect ; throat, 

 white, or mostly .so, witli black along each side; middle 

 of chest, blotched or broadly streaked with black or 

 dark brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Probably but one nest has been 

 discovered. 



Distribution. — Interior plains of North America, 

 from eastern base of Rocky Mountains to western 

 Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Manitoba, etc., occasionally, 

 during migration, to Illinois, and Wisconsin ; breeding 

 west of Hudson Bay; south in winter to Texas; acci- 

 dental in British Columbia and Orc.gon. 



How modern is much of our knowledge of 

 American birds is shown by the fact that the 

 breeding range of the Harris's Sparrow was not 

 known in the nineteenth century. Only the in- 

 vestigation of the country west of Hudson's Bay 

 made since 1900 has established that country 

 as the nesting home of this bird. In the United 

 States it is distinctly a bird of the Missouri 

 River basin, not to breed, to he sure, but to 

 haunt for half the year the shrubberv along the 

 river bottoms and the thickets along the smaller 

 streams. In fact what the Wliite-throat does 



when it comes down out of the North for three 

 seasons, that also does this Black-hooded Spar- 

 row. Black-hood and White-throat are members 

 of the same genus, but the former has the more 

 restricted area. Black-hood will chirp much in 

 the same tone as the White-throat, will seldom 

 rise much above the bushes, and haunts the 

 damper places in the thickets to rustle about in 

 the dead leaves. 



In the spring the Black-hood's song, uttered 

 from the same bushes as the ^^^^ite-throat's, 

 begins something like the hvmn-notes of the 



