~^ 



108 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. 



In their breeding range in fall "they go in little troops-,- loitering in the patches of 

 briers that lead out from the continuous undergrowth into the ravines making down to the 

 streams ; and their habit, when disturbed, of mounting the topmost twigs of the bushes 

 to gain a better view, together with their size, renders them very conspicuous." (Coues.) 



NAMES: Harris' Sparrow, Black-hood Sparrow.— Trauerfink (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Fringilla qaerula Nutt. (1840). ZONOTRICHIA QXJBRULA Gambel (1847). Frin- 

 gilla harrisi Aud. (1843). Fringilla comota Prinz Max. (1841). Zonotrichia cotnota Bonap. (1850). 



DESCRIPTION : "Hood and nape, sides of head anterior to and including the eyes, chin, throat, and a few 

 spots in the middle of the upper part of the breast and on its sides, black. Sides of head and neck, 

 ash-gray, with the trace of a narrow crescent back of the ear-coverts. Interscapular region of back, 

 with the feathers reddish-brown, streaked with dark brown. Breast and belly, clear white. Sides of 

 body, light brownish, streaked. Two narrow white bands across the greater and middle coverts. 



"Length about 7.00 inches; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.65 inches." (Ridgway.) 



WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, 



Zonotrichia leucophrys Swainson. 



Plate XXIV. Fig. 4. 



Down from the North they are marching. 



The scouts of the winter king ; 

 Where bright spring flowers were blooming, 



Withered and dead lea-res they fling. 

 Their biTonac fires they've kindled, 



Sumachs and maples aglow ; 

 Oaks on the hill-side are waving 



Signals to birches below. 

 O'er field and meadow are drifting 



The smoke and dust of the fray ; 

 In -woodlands dead leaves are falling, 



This Indian summer day. 



Prom "Forest and Stream." 



IJg^HIS time our way leads us to the thickets of the woods and the woodland border. 



L' It is a beautiful day in October, as October itself is one of the most beautiful 

 months of the year in almost all parts of our great country. The thickets and hedge- 

 rows swarm with birds migrating southward. The days are yet quite sunny, though 

 the nights are not free from hoar frosts. A veil-like haze, so vapory as to be percept- 

 ible only on distant objects which it seems to cover, denotes the Indian summer. The 

 wonderfully picturesque effects of the various contrasting colors which the foliage of 

 many trees, shrubs, and even herbs has assumed, produce a deep impression upon the 

 lover of the beautiful in Nature. The deep blue prairie gentian' is flowering abundantly 

 on the prairies of the Ozark region never disturbed by plough or harrow. About the 

 same time the beautiful fringed gentian ^ appears, mirroring the blue October skies. The 

 closed gentian' with its deep purple-blue corolla is less beautiful as the two foregoing 



1 Gentiana puberula. 2 G. criaita.. » O. AndrewaU.- 



