BIRDS OF 



lores to the level of the eyes, and bounded by another black stripe that starts 

 behind the eye and curves around the side of the hind head, nearly meeting 

 its fellow on the nape ; edge of under eye-lid white. Or, we may say, crown 

 black, enclosing a median white stripe and two lateral white stripes, all con- 

 fluent on the hind head. General color, a fine dark ash, paler below, white- 

 ning insensibly on the chin and belly, more brownish on the rump, changing 

 to dull brownish on the flanks and crissum, the middle of the back streaked 

 with dark purplish-bay and ashy-white. No bright bay like that of albicollis 

 anywhere, except some edging on the wing-coverts and inner secondaries ; 

 middle and greater coverts tipped with white, forming two bars ; no yellow 

 anywhere; bill and feet reddish. Young birds have the black of the head 

 replaced by a very rich warm brown, the white of the head by pale brownish 

 and the general ash has a brownish suffusion and the back is more like 

 albicollis. Length, 6.25-7 ; extent, 9.20-10.20 ; tail, 2.90-3.20. 



HAB. North America at large, breeding chiefly in the Rocky Mountain 

 region (including Sierra Nevada) and northeast to Labrador. 



Nest, on the ground among the bushes ; composed of grass and weeds, 

 intermixed with moss and lined with fine hair like grass and rootlets. 



Eggs, 4 to 5 ; ground color, greyish-white, heavily clouded with choco- 

 late-brown. Very variable in pattern. 



The White-crowned Sparrow is a more northern bird than its 

 white-throated relative, but it does not arrive so early in spring, 

 seldom appearing along our southern border before the first 

 week in May. During the two succeeding weeks it is very 

 common among the brambles and thorn bushes by the way- 

 sides. 



They travel in small companies of ten or twelve, the in- 

 dividuals keeping each other in view as they skulk from one 

 brush pile to another to avoid being observed. By the 25th of 

 May they have all gone north, apparently far north, for I have 

 no record of their having been found breeding in Ontario. 



In the fall they are again seen on the return trip, but not in 

 such great numbers as in the spring, and none have been ob- 

 served to winter within our limits. 



217. ZONOTRICHIA ALBICOLLIS (GMEL.). 558. 

 White throated Sparrow. 



Adult-male, with the crown black, divided by a median white stripe, 

 bounded by a white superciliary line and yellow spot from the nostril to the 

 eye ; balow this a black stripe through the eye ; below this a maxillary black 



218 



