LXI 



HARRIS'S SPARROW 

 555. Zonotrichia querula 



This bird is seven and one-half inches long; it is the 

 largest of our Sparrows and may be easily identified 

 by remembering that it is the only Sparrow marked by 

 a jet black crown, face and throat, with its other mark- 

 ings similar to those of Sparrows in general. The female 

 has less black on the head than the male and the throat 

 is whitish. The different seasons bring variations in 

 the typical markings. 



In late March these Sparrows begin to make their 

 appearance about Kansas City, Missouri, in the brushy 

 parts of Swope Park, bordering the Blue River, and along 

 the hedges in the adjoining country. They seem to pre- 

 fer thickets near swampy land where they congregate in 

 small flocks, busily engaged in scratching among the 

 dead leaves on the ground while looking for food. A few 

 are said to remain all winter. 



Harris 's Sparrows seldom fly far from their brushy 

 retreats, even when frightened. They have a sweet, but 

 limited, song that seems to carry with its delivery a 

 message of sadness. It is not a song delivered with en- 

 thusiasm and emphasis. It must be a warm spring day 

 to inspire this songster ; he is not the cold weather vocal- 

 ist that we have in the Song Sparrow. 



The nesting habits of this bird are unknown at the 

 present time, as there is no authentic report of anyone's 

 having found an occupied nest. In a personal conversa- 

 tion with Valhjalmur Steffansson, the great Arctic ex- 

 plorer, he told me that he saw flocks of these Sparrows, 

 males and females, on May fourteenth, at Great Slave 

 Lake. Evidently, they had not mated, or begun to nest. 

 I have seen them in Missouri, as late as Miay tenth, still 

 in flocks. (Fig. 95.) 



It is a difficult task to tabulate the coming and de- 

 parture of Harris's Sparrows. Unlike many migrants 

 that are here today and gone tomorrow, a few of them 



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