1924] Swarth : Birds and Mammals of the Skeena Bwer Region 353 



Zonotrichia coronata (Pallas). Golden-crowned Sparrow 



Breeding in fair abundance above timber line on Nine-mile Moun- 

 tain. When we arrived there (July 22) the young were out of the 

 nest and flying about ; the old birds could be seen singing from perches 

 above the thickets in which they dwelt. Specimens in juvenal plumage 

 were among our special desiderata and every effort was made to shoot 

 them, but so wary were these young birds that we deemed ourselves 

 lucky to get even the three we eventually collected. At the first sign 

 of danger a loud chi/p from the parent sends every youngster within 

 hearing scuttling for the nearest tangle of prostrate balsam, but not 

 to remain there. A prompt retreat is made to the far side of the bush, 

 followed quickly by flight to another thicket perhaps a hundred yards 

 away. Pursuit is heralded by warning alarm notes from the parent, 

 and the youngster again flees to another refuge. Further pursuit is 

 generally useless. In fact, young birds were seen to go five hundred 

 yards or more in one flight when followed up. Meanwhile, the old 

 bird, perhaps joined by others, remains nearby, giving warning from 

 some conspicuous perch, utterly indifferent to approach within a few 

 yards. The warning chip of the adult golden-crowned sparrow was 

 a familiar note in the balsam thickets along the ridges. It accompanied 

 us nearly everywhere in our travels on the summit. 



The extreme wariness of the young golden-crowned sparrow is a 

 trait that receives emphasis from the fact that, when the first winter 

 plumage is attained a few weeks later, these same young birds are 

 peculiarly tame and unsuspicious. Then they will permit of close 

 approach, mil in fact come themselves to inspect the stranger in the 

 woods. 



The first migrating golden-crowned sparrow appeared in the low- 

 lands, in Kispiox Valley, on September 1. For a short time thereafter 

 they were fairly common. 



Six specimens collected (nos. 42297-42302) : two adult males, two 

 juvenal males, and one juvenal female from Nine-mile Mountain ; one 

 immature male from Kispiox Valley. The three young (collected 

 July 25, 26) are in juvenal plumage throughout. They are heavily 

 streaked above and below, save on the center of the abdomen, and are 

 generally similar to the same stage in the various races of Zonotrichia 

 leucophrys. Compared with juvenal Z. I. leucophrys, young coronata 

 is darker throughout, the ventral streaking is darker, heavier, and 

 more extensive, and the lateral crown stripes are less plainly indicated. 



