384 SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 
ashy not so pure; larger than leucophrys; length averaging 7-00; wing over 3.00. Young: 
black of the crown replaced by brown ; but always traces of the yellow on crown and wings. 
The yellow eye-spot is small, and not always evident. Pacific coast (to the Rocky Mts. ?), 
from Alaska to Southern California, abundant, migratory. 
280. Z. que'rula. (Lat. querula, querulous, plaintive ; queror, I complain, lament.) Hooded 
Crown SPARROW^ Harris' Sparrow. Adult ^ , in breeding plumage : Whole crown, face, 
and throat jet-black ; sides of head pale ash ; auriculars darker ash, bounded by a black line 
starting behind the eye and curving around them. Under parts nearly pure white, but slightly 
ashy before and faintly brownish-M^ashed behind, the sides with a few dusky streaks, the breast 
with a few black spots continued from the black throat-patch. Back nearly as in coronata, 
streaked with dusky and reddish-brown. Bill coral-red ; toes dark ; tarsi pale. No yellow 
anywhere. Very large : Length 7.00-7.75; extent 10.75-11.25; wing 3.25-3.50; tail 3.40- 
3.60; bill 0.45 ; tarsus 1.00; middle toe and claw rather less. 9 similar, but with much less 
black on head and throat, the hood being restricted or imperfect ; but its outline usually trace- 
able. (J 9 J ill the fall : Bill light reddish-brown, usually obscured on ridge and at tip, and 
paler at base below ; feet flesh -colored, obscured on the toes ; eyes brown. Crown grayish- 
black, every feather with a distinct, narrow, pale gray edge all around, producing a peculiar 
effect ; this area bounded with a light ochrey-brown superciliary and frontal line. Sides of head 
like the superciliary, but the auricular patch rather darker grayish -brown, and the loral region 
obscurely whitish. Chin pure white, bounded on each side by a sharp maxillary line of 
blackish, with a rusty-red tinge. On the lower throat, a large, diffuse and partially discon- 
tinuous blotch of this same blackish-red, cutting off the white chin from the white of the rest 
of the under parts, connecting with the maxillary streaks, and stretching along the sides of the 
neck and breast in a series of rich dusky -chestnut streaks. On the middle of the breast the 
blotch generally runs out into the white in a sharp point, but its size and shape vary inter- 
minably. The markings here described are all included in the jet-black hood and breast-plate 
of the perfect spring dress ; and between the two extremes every intermediate condition may be 
observed at various seasons. The rest of the plumage does not differ very materially from that 
of the adult ^ in summer. This is the largest of our sparrows ; a bird of imposing appear- 
ance — for a sparrow. Interior U. S. and British Provinces, especially the valley of the Missis- 
sippi, Lower Missouri, and Red River of the North ; scarcely W. to the Rocky Mts. ? E. to 
Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, and probably Illinois ; S. to Texas. It is abundant in the line of 
its migration, as in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Dakota, etc., but its breeding resorts are still 
unknown. I found it in Dakota at 49° coming early in September from the North. 
85. CHONDES'TES. (Gr. x'w^oy? chotidros, cartilage; also grain, seeds; tdea-Trjs, edestes, an 
eater ; badly formed.) Lark Sparrows. Framed for a 
single species, with long pointed wings .exceeding the 
long rounded tail ; point of the wing formed by 2d and 3d 
primaries, but 1st and 4th scarcely shorter ; rest rapidly 
graduated. Tarsus about equal to middle toe and claw ; 
lateral toes short, tips of the claws not reaching base of 
middle claw. Bill swollen -conic, with culmen slightly 
convex, and commissure little angulated. Species large, 
for a sparrow, streaked above, white below, the head and 
tail parti-colored. 
281. C. gram'mica. (Or. ypafxfxiKosj grammicos, marked with a 
ypdfjLfjLa, gramma, a line, word ; badly selected to indicate the Fig. 243. — Lark Sparrow, nat. size, 
stripes of the head. Fig. 243.) Lark Sparrow. Lark ^^"^ 
Finch. $ 9 ? adult : Head variegated with chestnut, black, and white ; crown chestnut, 
blackening on forehead, divided by a median stripe, and bounded by superciliary stripes, of 
