384 SYSTE3IA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



;)t?hy not so pure; larger than leiicophri/s; length averaging 700; wing over 3.00. Yotmff : 

 black of the crown replaced by brown ; but always traces of the yellow on crown and wings. 

 The yellow eye-spot is small, and not always evident. Pacific coast (to the Rocky Mts. ?), 

 fn iin Alaska to Southern California, abundant, migratory. 

 ZHO. Z. qiie'rula. (Lat. querula, querulous, plaintive; queror, I complain, lament.) Hooded 

 Crown Sparrow. Harris' Sparrow. Adult ^, in breeding plumage : Whole crown, face, 

 and throat jet-black ; sides of head pale ash ; auricuiars darker ash, bounded by a black line 

 starting behind the eye and curving around them. Under parts nearly pure white, but slightly 

 ashy before and faintly brownish-washed behind, the sides with a few dusky streaks, the breast 

 with a few black spots continued from the black throat-patch. Back nearly as in coronata, 

 streaked vAdth dusky and reddish-brown. Bill coral-red ; toes dark ; tarsi pale. No yellow 

 anywhere. Very large : Length 7.00-7-75; extent 10.75-11.25; wing 3.25-3.50; tail 3.40- 

 3.60; bill 0.45 ; tarsus 1.00 ; middle toe and claw rather less. 9 similar, but with much less 

 black on head and throat, the hood being restricted or imperfect ; but its outline usually trace- 

 able. (J 9 , in the fall : Bill light reddish-brown, usually obscured on ridge and at tip, and 

 paler at base below ; feet ilesh -colored, obscured on the toes ; eyes brown. Crown grayish- 

 black, every feather with a distinct, narrow, pale gray edge all around, producing a peculiar 

 cflFect ; this area bounded with a light ochrey-brown superciliary and frontal line. Sides of head 

 like the superciliary, but the auricular patch rather darker grayish-brown, and the loral region 

 obscurely whitish. Chin pure white, bounded on each side by a sharp maxillary line of 

 blackish, with a rusty-red tinge. On the lower throat, a large, diffuse and partially discon- 

 tinuous blotch of this same blackish-red, cutting off the white chin from the white of the rest 

 of the under parts, connecting with the maxillary streaks, and stretching along the sides of the 

 neck and breast in a series of rich dusky-chestnut streaks. On the middle of the breast the 

 blotch generally runs out into the white in a sharp point, but its size and shape vary inter- 

 minably. The markings here described are all included in the jet-black hood and breast-plate 

 of the perfect spring dress ; and between the two extremes every intermediate condition may be 

 observed at various seasons. The rest of the plumage does not differ very materially from that" 

 of the adult $ in summer. This is the largest of our sparrows ; a bird of imposing appear- 

 ance — for a sparrow. Interior U. S. and British Provinces, especially the valley of the Missis- 

 sippi, Lower Missouri, and Red River of the North ; scarcely W. to the Rocky Mts. ? E. to 

 Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, and probably Illinois ; S. to Texas., It is abundant in the line of 

 its migration, as in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Dakota, etc., but its breeding resorts are still 

 unknown. I found it in Dakota at 49° coming early in September from the North. 

 85. CHONDES'TES. (Gr. x°^^P°^^ chondros, cartilage; also grain, seeds; eSeerr^y, edestes, an 

 eater; badly formed.) Lark Sparrows. Framed for a 

 single species, with long pointed wings exceeding the 

 long rounded tail ; point of the wing formed by 2d and 3d 

 primaries, but 1st and 4th scarcely shorter; rest rapidly 

 graduated. Tarsus about equal to middle toe and claw ; 

 lateral toes short, tips of the claws not reaching base of 

 middle claw. Bill swollen -conic, with culmen slightly 

 convex, and commissure little angulated. Species large, 

 for a sparrow, streaked above, white below, the head and 

 tan parti-colored. 

 381. C. gram'mica. (Gr. ypap/niKoy, ^rammieos, marked with a 



ypa/i/xa, gramma, a line, word ; badly selected to indicate the Fig. 243. — Lark Sparrow, nat. size, 



stripes of the head. Fig. 243.) Lark Sparrow. Lark '^^'^ "*'• ''^^- ^ ^'^ 

 Finch. $ 9, adult: Head variegated with chestnut, black, and white; crown chestnut, 

 blackening on forehead, divided by a median stripe, and bounded by superciliary stripes, of 



