Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 181 



dependence and Westport) in 1833, were the first to describe it 

 under the name of F. querula in 1840. When Audubon ascended 

 the Missouri River in 1843 in company with Bell, Harris and 

 Squires, he thought he found a new finch near Fort Leaven- 

 worth, May 4, 1843, and called it Fringilla fiarrisii, not knowing 

 at the time of NuttalFs discovery and description. He met 

 with it again on May 6, 7 and 8, when near the corner of the 

 state. It was with Zono. leucophrys and alhicollis, Melospiza 

 lincolni, Siurus novehoracensis, Dendr. coronata and Helm, ruhri- 

 capilla. Dr. Hoy met with it at Lexington, May 7, 1854, and 

 a troop of from 15 to 20 at Chillicothe, May 13, 1854. Dr. J. A. 

 Allen found it exceedingly abundant at Leavenworth in May, 

 1872, and Trippe listed it as abundant in fall and spring in 

 Decatur, la., 1872. It was also taken by the Warren's Expedi- 

 tion at Fort Leavenworth, and Aughey gives it as common in 

 eastern Nebraska along the Missouri River. In his Birds of 

 Western Missouri (Nuttall Bull, Vol. 4, p. 144), W. E. D. Scott 

 writes: ''On my arrival at Warrensburg, March 27, 1874, I 

 found the birds quite common. They were all moulting, and 

 had much the same habits as the White-crowned Sparrows, 

 being in small parties of three or four, and frequenting similar 

 localities. They were still common April 27, and had assumed 

 the breeding plumage. I took some as late as May 5." The 

 first week of March seems to be the time when the first make 

 their appearance in southwestern Missouri. Earliest date, March 

 2, 1902, Jasper, Savage; at Independence the first date is March 

 8, 1900, Tindall. They become common in southern Missouri 

 during the latter part of March, and in northern Missouri in the 

 first half of April and remain common to the end of the month 

 or first week in May. The last are gone bj^ the middle of May, 

 not to be seen again until October. At St. Joseph the species 

 was present from October 10 to November 16, 1894, according 

 to Mr. S. S. Wilson, who took a male in spring dress, November 1. 

 Mr. NehrUng found the species common at Freistatt, Lawrence 

 Co., as early as October 11, 1886, but usually the bulk does not 

 reach Missouri before the middle of October and remains to the 

 latter part of November. A few linger well into winter, and 

 there is a record of January 2, 1884, when the last was seen by 

 Mr. Nehrling at Pierce City. In eastern Missouri the species is 

 known only as a rare straggler and was met with by the writer 

 in Lincoln Co., in the spring of 1896, and in Audrain Co., by Mrs. 

 M. Musick of Mt. Carmel, April 3, 1884, and again April 28 to 



