180 Harris, Notes on Harris's Sparrow. [April 



cerns other individuals of the species. 1 There were certainly no 

 other Grebes in the slough. Their nesting associates were as fol- 

 lows: Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phceniceus fortis), about 

 three pairs nesting; Sora Rail (Porzana Carolina), three or four 

 pairs nesting; Wilson's Phalarope (Steganopus tricolor), several 

 pairs; Killdeer (Oxycchus vociferus), one pair in evidence; Savan- 

 nah Sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis alaudinus) were present 

 at the slough all summer; and a pair of Pintails (Dafila acuta) were 

 believed to have a nest in an adjoining field. The adjoining prairie 

 was monopolized, as usual, by the Horned Larks (Otocoris alpestris 

 leucolo?ma) and Longspurs (Calearius ornatus and Rhynchophanes 

 mccowni). 



At the present writing this slough is dry; the road which passes 

 through it is traveled every day by automobiles ; and the spot where 

 the Grebes established their home a year ago has now been plowed 

 and planted. 



HISTORICAL NOTES ON HARRIS'S SPARROW 

 (ZONOTRICHIA QUERULA). 



BY HARRY HARRIS. 



During the early decades of the nineteenth century when 

 those pioneer ornithological enthusiasts, whose names and dis- 

 coveries are familiar to all students of the science, were pushing 

 beyond the frontiers in quest of new objects of study, the Kansas 

 City region was the gateway to the wilderness and the very outpost 

 of civilization. In this immediate neighborhood where the down- 

 rushing Missouri is joined by the less turbulent Kaw, and where 

 the greai: river bends finally to the east, were situated the frontier 

 settlements of Independence, Fort Osage (Fort Clark, of Lewis 



1 Mr. A. A. Saunders advises me that so far as he is aware this is the only record of nesting 

 of the Horned Grebe in Montana, although he has found two previous records of occurrence 

 of the species in the state. 



