A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 1

Sp. Char. Hood chestnut, tinged with black towards the forehead, and with a median stripe and superciliary stripe of dirty whitish. Rest of upper parts pale grayish-olive, the interscapular region alone streaked with dark brown. Beneath white, a round spot on the upper part of the breast, a broad maxillary stripe cutting off a white stripe above, and a short line from the bill to the eye, continued faintly behind it, black. A white crescent under the eye, bordered below by black and behind by chestnut, on the ear-coverts. Tail-feathers dark brown, the outermost edged externally and with more than terminal third white, with transverse outline; the white decreasing to the next to innermost, tipped broadly with white. Length, 6 inches; wing, 3.30.

Hab. From Wisconsin and Illinois (also in Michigan and Ohio) to the Pacific coast; Cape St. Lucas, south to Texas and Mexico. Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 379); Vera Cruz (winter, Sumichrast, 552); Eastern Massachusetts, accidental (Maynard).

The colors of the female are duller than in the male, the chestnut less bright, the black not so intense; the pattern, however, is the same.

Chondestes grammaca.

The young bird has the breast and throat with a good many spots of dark brown instead of the single large one on the breast. The other markings are more obscure.

Habits. The Lark Finch is found from Eastern Illinois to the Pacific, and from Oregon to Texas. Within this wide area of distribution it is everywhere abundant in the open prairies and plains. It is not found in wooded regions. This bird was described by Say, and was first met with by Long’s expedition to the Missouri River. It was not known to either Wilson or Audubon, and its habits were very imperfectly known to Nuttall.

Mr. Dresser found this bird very abundant in Texas throughout the summer, arriving in the neighborhood of San Antonio in March, and leaving there early in October. He found their nests quite common, and usually built in a mesquite tree or bush, of fine roots and grasses. Dr. Heermann also found it abundant in New Mexico. In Arizona, Dr. Coues found it, chiefly in spring and autumn, a migrant, and, at those seasons, very numerous. Many remain during the summer to breed, and a few are found in the winter. It was met with near New Leon, Mexico, by Lieutenant Couch, but was not obtained in Vera Cruz by Sumichrast. It was taken near Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard. A single specimen was obtained at Fort Dalles in Oregon, by Dr. Suckley, but it was not met with by him west of the Cascade Mountains. Mr. Townsend states that he also found it in that region.

Dr. Cooper did not find this species in the Colorado Valley, though it has been obtained at Fort Yuma in December; and, as he has met with them in large flocks in the valleys of San Diego in February, he concludes that they winter in the southern part of California. They breed from San Diego throughout California, and as far north as the Columbia, where they arrive early in May. Dr. Cooper has never found their nest in California, but has frequently met with it in Kansas and Nebraska in May and June. He found them on the ground, and their nests were constructed chiefly of grass.

He speaks of them as singing very sweetly, and states that in their song they resemble the Canary more than any other bird. They frequent the open plains, usually in the neighborhood of trees, upon which they often alight in flocks. Their food consists of the seeds of grass and other small plants, which they collect on the ground.

A single specimen of this bird was shot in Massachusetts in 1845, by Mr. Samuel Jillson. It was taken in Gloucester, on the coast, where its appearance was, of course, purely accidental.

We are indebted to the careful observations of Mr. Ridgway for the principal portion of our knowledge of the manners and mode of life of this species, which he has recently ascertained to be an abundant summer resident in Southern Illinois. It is probably equally abundant throughout the State, and is found as far east as Ohio, where it becomes rare.

The Prairie Lark-Finch was found by that accurate observer very abundant at Sacramento, Cal., where it frequented alike the oak groves, the cottonwood and willow copses, and the weedy fields and meadows. At Sacramento it was eminently arboreal, quite in contrast with its habits as observed in Illinois. It was also met with in the interior, wherever the locality was suited to it. Near Salt Lake City it is one of the most numerous of the birds inhabiting the artemisia grounds, in the outskirts of the town, in company with Poospiza bilineata and Spizella breweri. It is called by the Utah boys the Snake-Bird, from the supposed resemblance of its striped head to that of a snake. At Sacramento it is greatly prized as a cage-bird, and young birds readily sell there for four dollars a pair. He states that the delightful song of this bird has no parallel among the North American Fringillidæ, and claims that in this respect it is pre-eminently superior to that of all the other members of this family. As it perches upon the summit of a small tree, on the telegraph wire, or upon a fence, its notes may be heard throughout the day, in the morning before those of any others, and late in the evening, when all except for this irrepressible songster is silence.

The song of this species is described as composed of regularly divided parts, almost perfect in compass, in vigor and continuity unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any other North American species. It begins with a series of chants, the style reminding one somewhat of the Cyanospiza cyanea, but each syllable loud, rich, and clear, and uttered with a peculiar emotional trill, the whole seemingly delivered in a hurried manner, in one continuous gush of sprightly silvery notes, each accompanied by a metallic tremolo. As if exhausted, the singer falters, and the notes become scarcely audible, then suddenly reviving, as if in great joy, the song is resumed in all its vivacity, until the bird at last really appears to be overcome by its efforts.

Dr. Coues met with this species in Arizona in the winter. He writes me as follows: “The most eastern point where I observed this species was at St. Louis, Mo. I saw a good many in the suburbs of that city in May, 1865. It is one of the most abundant Sparrows about Fort Whipple, particularly during the migrations; the majority pass northward in April and May, but many breed in the vicinity, and some pass the winter in sheltered situations. It is generally seen in companies, frequenting the skirts of woods, the underbrush along mountain rivulets, and similar situations, where the seeds of various plants are procurable; its general habits resemble those of the species of Zonotrichia.”

The nests were found by Mr. Ridgway in various situations; the larger number were upon the ground, but several were in trees varying in height from six to twenty feet from the ground. They were found from the latter part of May through June. A nest obtained in Southern Wisconsin by Mr. Thure Kumlien is very homogeneous in structure, consisting entirely of loosely intertwined stems of dry grasses, sedges, and carices. It was built on the ground, is nearly flat, and has only a very shallow cavity. Its entire height is less than two inches, and the depth of its depression not half an inch. The diameter of the nest is three and a half inches, and that of the cavity at the rim three inches.

The maximum number of their eggs is five. Their average measurement is .85 by .65 of an inch. The ground-color is usually a grayish-white, rarely a light brown, marbled and streaked with waving lines, and a few dots of black or a blackish-brown.

Genus ZONOTRICHIA, Swainson

Zonotrichia, Swainson, Fauna Bor.-Am. II, 1831. (Type, Emberiza leucophrys.)

Zonotrichia leucophrys.

1506 ♂

Gen. Char. Body rather stout. Bill conical, slightly notched, somewhat compressed, excavated inside; the lower mandible rather lower than the upper; gonys slightly convex; commissure nearly straight. Feet stout; tarsus rather longer than middle toe; the lateral toes very nearly equal. Hind toe longer than the lateral ones; their claws just reaching to base of middle one. Inner claw contained twice in its toe proper; claws all slender and considerably curved. Wings moderate, not reaching to the middle of the tail, but beyond the rump; secondaries and tertials equal and considerably less than longest primaries; second and third quills longest; first about equal to the fifth, much longer than tertials. Tail rather long, moderately rounded; the feathers not very broad.

Back streaked. Rump and under parts immaculate, except in young. Head black, or with white streaks, entirely different from the back.

This genus embraces some of the most beautiful of American Sparrows, all of the largest size in their subfamily.

All the species properly belonging to this genus are North American; several South American species, have, however, been assigned to it; but they are none of them strictly congeneric with those given below.

Common Characters. Feathers of interscapular region blackish centrally, passing into rufous-brown and edged with paler. Rump and upper tail-coverts uniform olivaceous-ashy brown. Two white bands on the wings; the tertials edged with rufous. Beneath without streaks. Head above marked with black, and generally with white. Cheeks plumbeous.

A. Black of the crown divided by a median light stripe. Jugulum ashy.

a. Throat ashy, uniform with the breast.

1. Z. leucophrys. Median stripe of the crown white. A black stripe from behind the eye, and a white superciliary stripe.

α. A black stripe from the eye to forehead, across lore. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, west throughout Rocky Mountains; Cape St. Lucas in winter … var. leucophrys.

β. No black streak in front of eye, the lores being wholly ashy. Hab. Western Province North America, east to Rocky Mountains … var. gambeli.

2. Z. coronata. Median stripe of crown yellow for anterior and ash for posterior half. Black of crown coming down to eye and ear coverts, leaving no light superciliary stripe. Hab. Pacific Province of North America; accidental east of Sierra Nevada.

b. Throat pure white, in sharp contrast with the dark ash of cheeks and jugulum.

3. Z. albicollis. Median stripe of crown white. A light superciliary stripe, yellow anterior to the eye, and white behind it; a black streak along upper edge of ear-coverts. Hab. Eastern Province of North America.

B. Black of the crown not divided, but continuous. Jugulum white.

4. Z. querula. Lores, forepart of cheeks, with the chin and throat, deep black; whole side of head behind the eye, ashy. Lower parts pure white. Hab. Missouri Plains.

Zonotrichia leucophrys, SwainsonWHITE-CROWNED SPARROW

Emberiza leucophrys, Forster, Philos. Trans. LXII, 1772, 382, 426.—Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 874.—Wilson, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 49, pl. xxxi, f. 4. Fringilla (Zonotrichia) leucophrys, Sw. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 255. Zonotrichia leucophrys, Bon. List, 1838.—Ib. Consp. 1850, 478.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 458, pl. lxix, f. 2.—Coues, P. A. N. S. 1861, 224.—Maynard, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 118.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 196.—Samuels, 309. Fringilla leucophrys, Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 88; V, 515, pl. cxiv.—Ib. Syn. 1839, 121.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 157, pl. cxcii. ? Spizella maxima, Bonap. Comp. Rend. 1853 (either this or Z. gambeli). White-crowned Sparrow, Pennant.

Figured in Buffon, Ois. IV, 192, pl. ccxxiii, f. 2. Winter.

Sp. Char. Head above, upper half of loral region from the bill, and a narrow line through and behind the eye to the occiput, black; a longitudinal patch in the middle of the crown, and a short line from above the anterior corner of the eye, the two confluent on the occiput, white. Sides of the head, forepart of breast, and lower neck all round, pale ash, lightest beneath, and shading insensibly into the whitish of the belly and chin; sides of belly and under tail-coverts tinged with yellowish-brown. Interscapular region streaked broadly with dark chestnut-brownish. Edges of the tertiaries brownish-chestnut. Two white bands on the wing.

Female similar, but smaller; immature birds in first winter, with the black and white stripes on the crown replaced by dark chestnut-brown and brownish-yellow. Length, 7.10 inches; wing, 3.25. Young of the year thickly streaked with dusky on the breast. The lateral stripes of the crown dull brown, the median one streaked whitish.

Zonotrichia leucophrys.

Hab. United States from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, where they become associated with Z. gambeli. Cape St. Lucas; Greenland (Reinhardt, Ibis, III, 7). Breed in Wahsatch Mountains (Ridgway).

The white of the crown separates two black stripes on either side, rather narrower than itself. The black line behind the eye is continued anterior to it into the black at the base of the bill. The lower eyelid is white. There are some obscure cloudings of darker on the neck above. The rump is immaculate. No white on the tail, except very obscure tips. The white on the wings crosses the ends of the middle and greater coverts.

The character distinguishing the western representative (Z. gambeli) of leucophrys is apparently very trifling, but is very constant.

Habits. The White-crowned Sparrow is found from the Rocky Mountains eastward to the Atlantic, and in all the intervening territory, from the Southern States to the Arctic regions. In the high meadows of the Wahsatch Mountains, Mr. Ridgway found this bird very abundant, and one very characteristic, breeding there quite as numerously as any other species. In all that region Mr. Ridgway did not meet with a single individual of Z. gambeli, its western representative. At the encampment at Parley’s Park these birds soon became on very familiar terms with the party. They were very sociable, and paid frequent visits to the cook’s tent, and picked up, without the slightest signs of fear, the crumbs from the ground. Their sweet morning carol was, he states, delightful to the ear, and they were held in great favor by all. A nest of these birds was found on the ground, at Parley’s Park, June 26. It was built in a bunch of Geranium. Specimens of this species were obtained, in winter, at Cape St. Lucas, Lower California, by Mr. Xantus.

Although an eastern species, passing, in its migrations, through the Southern Atlantic States to Labrador in the spring and returning in the fall, it is a rare species in all New England. Mr. Boardman says that it is not common in Eastern Maine, and Mr. Verrill that it is rare in the western part of that State. In Eastern Massachusetts it is very rare. Mr. Maynard mentions obtaining a single specimen, May 27, and regards it as quite a rare migrant. I have never met with the bird near Boston, and do not believe that it is found there, except singly and rarely. In the western part of the State, though less rare, it is very far from being common. It is found there in the spring, from the 20th to the 30th of May, and in October from the 1st to the 15th. Mr. Allen met with it from May 7 to June 6, in 1861, when these birds were more common than usual. At this period, farther west, in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and New York, these birds are very abundant. From April 10 to the latter portion of May, in 1852, they were abundant in the neighborhood of Washington, the Capitol grounds being full of them. They were familiar and fearless, and seemed to delight to search for food under the large Norway spruces, branching down to the ground. Their abundance that spring may have been exceptional, as Wilson appears to have met with but very few specimens.

Mr. Audubon found these Sparrows very abundant in Labrador, where they were apparently late in breeding. It was not until the 6th of July that he found one of their nests. This was placed among the moss at the foot of a low fir. It was made externally of dry hypnum mosses, matted in bunches like the coarse hair of some quadruped, and internally of fine dry grasses, arranged with great neatness, to the thickness of half an inch, with a full lining of the delicate yellow fibrous roots of the Coptis trifolia. The nest was five inches in its external diameter, and two in depth, the cavity two and a quarter wide and one and three quarters deep. The eggs, five in number, he describes as of a light sea-green color, mottled towards the larger end with brownish spots and blotches, a few spots of a lighter tint being dispersed over the whole. All the nests found were placed on the ground or among the moss, and all were alike in their construction. By the beginning of August the party met with young that were able to fly. By the middle of that month they had commenced their southern migrations.

Dr. Coues also found this Sparrow breeding in great numbers along the entire coast of Labrador. Found in all situations, it seemed to be particularly fond of deep, thickly wooded, and secluded ravines, surrounded by high precipitous cliffs, and, when in more open districts, confining itself to tangled patches of juniper and scrubby firs. He describes it as a very active and sprightly bird, almost continually in motion. It seldom alights without rapidly jerking and flirting its tail, and uttering its loud chirpings. While the female is incubating, the male usually mounts to the top of the cliff or a neighboring tree, and repeats his loud and not unpleasing, though somewhat monotonous, notes for the space of half an hour or more. He describes its song as very similar to that of the White-throated Sparrow, consisting of two long-drawn syllables with a rising intonation, then three more in a quick, hurried manner, with a falling cadence,—pēé-dēé-dē-dē-dē; the whole is delivered in a mellow whistle. If approached while thus engaged, the performer becomes instantly silent, and dives hastily into the nearest cover. The nest was always placed on the ground, and usually in little patches of low heath, abundant wherever the ground was dry. He found a nest on the 23d of July, containing young just hatched. The female flutters off in silence when her nest is disturbed, but the male bird vociferates his angry remonstrance, flirting his tail and jerking his body in an energetic manner.

The food of this bird, in Labrador, was found to consist of small coleopterous insects, grass-seeds, a variety of berries, as well as minute shell-fish, for which they searched the margins of ponds near the sea-shore. They were also seen to pursue insects on the wing. Mr. Audubon speaks of its song as consisting of six or seven notes, and describes it as loud, clear, and musical, although of a plaintive nature, diminishing in power to the last note. Its flight he describes as low, swift, and protracted.

Dr. Coues did not find this bird abundant in South Carolina during the winter, and conjectures that it does not go so far to the south. Its migrations do not appear to be well defined, and nowhere is it known to be abundant during this season. Lieutenant Couch met with it at Brownville, Texas, and Tamaulipes, Mexico, and at Charco Escondido, in March, at which time they were in flocks, indicating a more southern migration than is generally supposed.

It extends its northern migrations to the extreme northern and northeastern portions of the continent, and also to Greenland. On the Yukon and Anderson Rivers it is replaced by the Z. gambeli. It is not abundant in Greenland. Holböll obtained a single specimen only in August; and afterwards met with a flock of young birds. He infers that they breed in the interior, but are restricted to a very narrow strip of territory.

Eggs of this species, from Wyoming Territory, measure from .90 to .95 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth, and are of an oblong-oval shape. The ground-color is a light greenish-white, thickly marked with reddish-brown and lighter markings of an obscure purplish-brown. The intensity, depth of coloring, and size of the darker brown markings, vary. They are principally disposed about the larger end.

Zonotrichia leucophrys var. gambeli, GambelWESTERN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW

Fringilla gambeli, Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 556.—Gambel, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. I, 1843, 262 (California.) Zonotrichia gambeli, Gambel, J. A. N. Sc. 2d series, I, Dec. 1847, 50.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 460, pl. lxix, f. 1.—Lord, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 1864, 119 (British Columbia).—Cooper & Suckley, 201.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 284 (Alaska).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 195. Zonotrichia leucophrys, Newberry, Zoöl. Cal. & Or. Route; Rep. P. R. R. VII, iv, 1857, 87.

Sp. Char. Precisely similar to Z. leucophrys, but rather smaller; the lores are gray throughout, this color continuous with a white superciliary stripe along the side of the head. Length, 6.25; wing, 2.83; tail, 3.08.

Hab. Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, north to Nulato and Fort Kenai, east through the valley of the Mackenzie River, and south to Jalisco and Mazatlan, Mexico.

As stated in the previous article, the only appreciable and constant difference between this race and Z. leucophrys is found in the character of the black stripe on the side of the crown. In leucophrys the black passes down over the upper half of the lores, and in front of the eye, to a line continuous with the cutting edge of the bill, and sends back a short branch to the eye, which cuts off the white superciliary stripe. In gambeli the superciliary stripe passes continuously forward to the ashy lores, cutting off the black from the eye. The lower edge of the black anteriorly is much higher than in leucophrys, and nearly on a line with the nostrils.

We cannot give any positive character by which immature specimens of leucophrys and gambeli may be distinguished, unless that the short dark line from forehead to eye of the former is indicated by a greater amount of dusky at the base of the feathers of that region.

The young of this species, like that of leucophrys, is streaked with blackish on side of the throat, across the breast, and on the sides of body, instead of being entirely unmarked beneath, as in the adult.

One specimen, collected in the West Humboldt Mountains, connects this form with leucophrys, and may possibly be a hybrid. In this there is a black spot in front of the eye, but separated from the black of the crown by the usual light superciliary stripe of gambeli.

Some specimens from the coast region of California have the ash of head and breast duller, and with a brownish cast, and the spots on the back black instead of deep dark brown.

Habits. The Western White-crowned Sparrow is found in great abundance, from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. Dr. Suckley found this bird very abundant at Fort Dalles and at Puget Sound, at both of which places it is a constant summer resident. It was always found in excellent condition. He states that it makes its nest in low bushes, among the stalks of lupins and other shrub-like weeds. Dr. Cooper also mentions that this bird is very abundant in all the prairie districts of Washington Territory, especially where there are low bushes. Unlike most of the Sparrows, it was also common on the coast prairies, where he found it breeding. They arrive at the Straits of Fuca at the end of March in large numbers, and leave for the South in October. He afterwards found them at Fort Mohave, in the Colorado Valley, quite common throughout the winter, some remaining until the 15th of May, but he does not think that any remain there to breed. They are also abundant, in winter, from San Francisco south, through all the inhabitable country. In summer they are found in the Sierra Nevada, to their summits, and are also plentiful in the regions north of the Columbia. A few remain, during the summer, in the cool district about San Francisco. In June, 1854, Dr. Cooper met with its nest near the mouth of the Columbia. It was built in a bush, about a foot from the ground, formed of neatly interwoven grasses, and lined with softer materials. He describes its song as loud, but short and melancholy, heard at intervals during the whole year, and frequently at night.