The Migration of North American Sparrows 



TWENTY-FOURTH PAPER 



Compiled by Prof. W. W. Cooke, Chiefly from Data in the Biological Survey 



With drawings by Louis Agassiz Fdertes 



(See Frontispiece) 



HARRIS'S SPARROW 



The summer home of the Harris's Sparrow was for many years one of the 

 unsolved problems of North American birds, and even now that the bird is 

 known to breed at the edge of the timber from Hudson Bay to Great Bear 

 Lake, its eggs have not yet been secured or seen. From this summer home, it 

 comes south in the fall along a very narrow migration path, the middle of which 

 approximates closely in the United States to the meridian of q6°. Probably 

 ninety-five per cent of all the birds of the species follow this restricted path 

 to winter in Texas, Oklahoma and southern Kansas. A few birds stray from 

 their fellows, and, as will be seen in the following tables, have been noted 

 irregularly from Ohio to California. 



An interesting peculiarity of the migration of the Harris's Sparrow is the 

 long wait after the first spring advance. The birds become common along the 

 Missouri River in northwestern Iowa soon after the middle of March, and yet 

 it is not until early May that they are noted a few miles farther north in south- 

 eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. The dates suggest the 

 probability that these March birds have wintered unnoticed in the thick 

 bushes of the bottomlands not far distant, and have been attracted to the open 

 country by the first warm days of spring. 



SPRING MIGRATION 



PLACE 



Central Missouri 



Canton, 111 



Indianola, la 



Sioux City, la 



Dunbar, Neb. (near) 



Syracuse, Neb 



Badger, Neb 



Columbus, O 



Sheridan, Ind 



Holly, Colo 



Southeastern South Dakota 



Heron Lake, Minn 



Lanesboro, Minn 



Lake Andrew, Minn 



Minneapolis, Minn 



White Earth, Minn 



Grand Forks, N. D. (near). 



Antler, N. D. (near) 



Aweme, Manitoba 



Number 

 of years' 

 record 



4 

 6 



3 

 3 

 3 

 4 

 7 

 16 



Average date of 

 spring arrival 



March 13 



March 12 

 March 18 

 March 3 

 March 10 

 April 23 



May 9 

 May 7 

 May 11 

 May 6 

 May 11 

 May 13 

 May 7 

 May 13 

 May 8 



Earliest date of 

 spring arrival 



February 14, 1911 

 March 14, 1894 

 March 9, 1902 

 February 27, 1906 

 February 3, 1900 

 March 1, 1904 

 April 18, 1900 

 April 27, 1889 

 May 4, 1907 

 May 10, 1898 

 May 3, 1884 

 May 3, 1895 

 May 9, 1891 

 May 5, 1896 

 May 9, 1874 

 May 6, 1881 

 May 5, 1004 

 May 10, 1908 

 May 2, 1895 



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