The White-crowned Sparrow 



purity, save as the last is sometimes slurred through the suppressed emo- 

 tions of a sigh. "Oh, dear me," the bird says; and because he really does 

 say that, I make no apologies to Prof. W. K. Fisher, who first recorded 

 the fact in the Condor. ' 



Golden-crowns have the familiar nasal tss, the keep-in-touch note 

 common to so many sparrows, and they have also a high-pitched chirp, or 

 tschip, neither so metallic nor so emphatic as that of leucophrys, nor so 

 rich as that of the Fox Sparrows. 



As for the "rain-bird" tradition, one may remark that the bird hails 

 from the rainy coasts of Alaska and is likely to feel more at home with us 

 in wet weather. We have wet weather of our own, in Humboldt County, 

 for example, but the reports of birds nesting in California seem to lack 

 confirmation. I encountered a handsome male near the landing place 

 on the Southeast Farallon, June 2, 191 1, but, seduced by the companion- 

 ship of such rarities as Magnolia Warbler, Redstart, Ovenbird, Lazuli 

 Bunting, and Sooty Fox Sparrow, he was in no wise accountable for his 

 behavior. 



No. 59 



White-crowned Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 554. Zonotrichia leucophrys (Forster). 



Description. — Adult male: A broad crown-stripe of pure white, bounded by 

 lateral stripes of black, which meet in front and invade lores (but not deeply) ; a short 

 superciliary, involving eyelid but cut off in front by loral black, this in turn bounded 

 by a post-ocular stripe of black — thus making a seven-banded pattern of alternating 

 black and white for the hindhead; nape, continuous with sides of head and neck and 

 anterior underparts, light neutral gray, changing to white on throat and belly, and 

 to buffy brown on sides, flanks, and crissum; coloration of remaining upperparts like- 

 wise neutral gray, heavily streaked upon back and scapulars with dark grayish brown 

 (mars brown to vandyke brown) and some whitish, changing posteriorly to grayish 

 drab in which the brown element gains in intensity; upper tail-coverts, therefore, 

 buffy brown; wings and tail brownish fuscous; the flight-feathers and rectrices edged 

 with pale grayish brown, the inner feathers of the greater coverts and the exposed 

 outer webs of tertials edged with, reddish brown (snuff-brown to Prout's brown); 

 the middle and greater coverts tipped with white, forming two fairly conspicuous 

 bars; axillaries and bend of wing white. Bill cinnamon brownish, darkening on tip; 

 iris brown; tarsus, pale brown; feet darker. Adult female: Much like adult male and 

 often indistinguishable, but usually somewhat duller, the head-stripes tinged with 

 brownish, and the whites of the head less pure; the cheeks tinged with brownish and the 

 grays of the upperparts less pure, — more brownish. Immature birds: Somewhat like 

 adults, but without black, and with total substitution of brownish gray for neutral 



■Vol. III., 1901, p. 79. 



319 



