Part 75

The nest of this bird is usually, if not always, on the ground, but in various situations, as I have found them on a hillside, in the midst of low underbrush, in a swampy thicket, at the foot of some large tree in a garden, as at Halifax, by the edge of a small pond, or in a hollow and decaying stump. Their nest is large, deep, and capacious, with a base of moss or coarse grasses, woven with finer stems above and lined with hair, a few feathers, fine rootlets of plants or soft grasses. The eggs vary from four to seven in number. Their ground-color is of a pale green or a greenish-white, marked over the entire egg with a fox-colored or rusty brown. Occasionally these markings are sparsely scattered, permitting the ground to be plainly visible, but generally they are so very abundant as to cover the entire egg so closely as to conceal all other shade, and give to the whole a deep uniform rufous-brown hue, through which the under color of light green is hardly distinguishable. They measure .90 by .68 of an inch.

Zonotrichia querula, GAMBEL.

HARRIS’S SPARROW; BLACK-HOODED SPARROW.

_Fringilla querula_, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 555 (Westport, Mo.). _Zonotrichia querula_, GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. 2d Ser. I, 1847, 51.—BONAP. Consp. 1850, 478.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 462.—ALLEN, Amer. Naturalist, May, 1872. _Fringilla harrisi_, AUD. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 331, pl. cccclxxxiv. _Fringilla comata_, PR. MAX. Reise II, 1841.—IB. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 279. _Zonotrichia comata_, BP. Consp. 1850, 479.

SP. CHAR. 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 inches; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.65.

HAB. Missouri River, above Fort Leavenworth. Chillicothe, Mo. (HOY). Very common in Eastern Kansas (ALLEN). San Antonio, Texas, spring (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 488).

The bill of this species appears to be yellowish-red. More immature specimens vary in having the black of the head above more restricted, the nape and sides of the head to the bill pale reddish-brown, lighter on the latter region. Others have the feathers of the anterior portion of the hood edged with whitish. In all there is generally a trace of black anterior to the eye.

This species has a considerably larger bill than _Z. leucophrys_, the mandible especially.

HABITS. This species was first described in 1840, by Mr. Nuttall, from specimens obtained by him near Independence, Mo., near the close of the month of April. He again met with them on the following 5th of May, when not far from the banks of the Little Vermilion River, a branch of the Kansas. He found them frequenting thickets, and uttering, chiefly in the early morning, but also occasionally at other parts of the day, a long, drawling, faint, solemn, and monotonous succession of notes, resembling _tē-dē-dē-dē_.

Since then but little additional information has been obtained in regard to their general habits, their geographical distribution, or their mode of breeding, single specimens only having been taken at considerable intervals in the valley of the Missouri and elsewhere until 1872. Two specimens were secured by Mr. Dresser, near San Antonio, in Western Texas, occurring on the Medina River during their spring migrations. More recently this bird was taken twice by Mr. H. W. Parker, in Jasper County, Iowa. The latest of these was secured May 19.

Professor F. H. Snow, in his List of Kansas Birds, published April, 1872, enumerates this species as a bird frequently taken in Kansas in the winter, and probably resident; and Mr. J. A. Allen (American Naturalist, May, 1872) states that Harris’s Finch was, next to the Cardinal, the most abundant species of the family of Sparrows and Finches in the vicinity of Leavenworth, as it was also one of the largest and handsomest. He found it almost exclusively frequenting the damper parts of the woods, associating with the White-throated Sparrow, much resembling it both in habits and in song. Nothing has so far been published respecting the nest and eggs.

GENUS JUNCO, WAGLER.

_Junco_, WAGLER, Isis, 1831. (Type, _Fringilla cinerea_, SW.) _Niphæa_, AUDUBON, Syn. 1839. (Type, _Emberiza hyemalis_, GM.)

[Line drawing: _Junco oregonus._ 32411 ♂]

GEN. CHAR. Bill small, conical; culmen curved at the tip; the lower jaw quite as high as the upper. Tarsus longer than the middle toe; outer toe longer than the inner, barely reaching to the base of the middle claw; hind toe reaching as far as the middle of the latter; extended toes reaching about to the middle of the tail. Wings rather short; reaching over the basal fourth of the exposed surface of the tail; primaries, however, considerably longer than the secondaries and tertials, which are nearly equal. The second quill longest, the third to fifth successively but little shorter; first longer than sixth, much exceeding secondaries. Tail moderate, a little shorter than the wings; slightly emarginate and rounded. Feathers rather narrow; oval at the end. No streaks on the head or body; color above uniform on the head, back, or rump, separately or on all together. Belly white; outer tail-feathers white. Young birds streaked above and below.

The essential characters of this genus are the middle toe rather shorter than the short tarsus; the lateral toes slightly unequal, the outer reaching the base of the middle claw; the tail a little shorter than the wings, slightly emarginate. In _Junco cinereus_ the claws are longer; the lower mandible a little lower than the upper.

Species and Varieties.

COMMON CHARACTERS. Prevailing color plumbeous; abdomen, crissum, and lateral tail-feathers white.

A. Bill entirely light flesh-colored, dusky only at extreme point. Color of jugulum (deep ash or plumbeous-black) abruptly defined against the pure white of the abdomen.

_a._ Posterior outline of the dark color of the jugulum convex; sides pinkish.

1. J. oregonus. Back and wings more or less tinged with dark rusty, in sharp contrast with the black (♂) or ash (♀) of the head and neck. _Hab._ Pacific Province of North America, from Sitka southward; east across the Middle Province of United States, to the Rocky Mountains (where mixed with _J. caniceps_[116]) occasionally to the Plains (where mixed with _J. hyemalis_[117]).

_b._ Posterior outline of the dark color of the jugulum concave; sides ashy.

2. J. hyemalis. Back and wings without rusty tinge.

Wing without any white; three outer tail-feathers only, marked with white. Bill, .40 and .25; wing, 3.10; tail, 2.80; tarsus, .80. _Hab._ Eastern Province North America. Straggling west to Arizona (COUES); in the northern Rocky Mountains, mixed with _J. oregonus_ … var. _hyemalis_.

Wing with two white bands (on tips of middle and greater coverts); four outer tail-feathers marked with white. Bill, .50 and .30; wing, 3.40; tail, 3.20. _Hab._ High mountains of Colorado (El Paso Co., AIKEN) … var. _aikeni_.

3. J. caniceps. Back (interscapulars) rufous; scapulars and wings uniform ashy. _Hab._ Central Rocky Mountains of United States. (Along southern boundary mixed with _J. cinereus_.[118])

B. Bill with the upper mandible black, the lower yellow. Ash of the jugulum fading gradually into the grayish-white of the abdomen.

4. J. cinereus. Whole back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials rufous.

Throat and jugulum pale ash; back bright rufous. Wing, 3.10; tail, 3.00; bill, .34 and .25; tarsus, .80. _Hab._ Tablelands and mountains of Mexico … var. _cinereus_.[119]

Throat and jugulum deep ash; back dull, or olivaceous-rufous. Wing, 3.15; tail, 3.10; bill, .44 and .34; tarsus, .90. _Hab._ High mountains of Guatemala … var. _alticola_.[120]

Junco hyemalis, SCLATER.

SNOWBIRD.

_Fringilla hyemalis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, (10th ed.,) 1758, 183 (not of GMELIN or LATHAM).—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 72; V, 505, pl. xiii.—MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 277. _Fringilla (Spiza) hyemalis_, BON. Syn. 1828, 109. _Emberiza hyemalis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 308. _Struthus hyemalis_, BON. List, 1838.—IB. Consp. 1850, 475. _Niphæa hyemalis_, AUD. Synopsis, 1839, 106.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 88, pl. clxvii. _Junco hyemalis_, SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1857, 7.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 468.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1861, 224.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 284.—SAMUELS, 314. _Fringilla hudsonia_, FORSTER, Philos. Trans. LXII, 1772, 428.—GMELIN, I, 1788, 926.—WILSON’S Index, VI, 1812, p. xiii. _Fringilla nivalis_, WILSON, II, 1810, 129, pl. xvi, f. 6.

SP. CHAR. Everywhere of a grayish or dark ashy-black, deepest anteriorly; the middle of the breast behind and of the belly, the under tail-coverts, and first and second external tail-feathers, white; the third tail-feather white, margined with black. Length, 6.25; wing, about 3. Female paler. In winter washed with brownish. Young streaked above and below.

HAB. Eastern United States to the Missouri, and as far west as Black Hills. Stragglers at Fort Whipple, Arizona, and mountains of Colorado.

The wing is rounded; the second quill longest; the third, fourth, and fifth, successively, a little shorter; the first longer than the sixth. Tail slightly rounded, and a little emarginate. In the full spring dress there is no trace of any second color on the back, except an exceedingly faint and scarcely appreciable wash of dull brownish over the whole upper parts. The markings of the third tail-feather vary somewhat in specimens. Sometimes the whole tip is margined with brown; sometimes the white extends to the end; sometimes both webs are margined with brown; sometimes the outer is white entirely; sometimes the brownish wash on the back is more distinct.

Some specimens (No. 52,702 and 52,701, males) from Sun River, Dakota, appear to be hybrids with _oregonus_. They have the general appearance of _hyemalis_, the back being nearly uniform with the head (with a wash of sepia-brown, however), and the head and neck of the same dark plumbeous; the sides, however, are pinkish, and the plumbeous on the jugulum has its posterior outline convex, as in _oregonus_. If, as there is every reason to believe, these specimens are really hybrids, then we have the two extreme forms of the genus connected by specimens of such a condition; thus, _hyemalis_ with _oregonus_, _oregonus_ with _caniceps_ (= _annectens_, Baird), and _caniceps_ with _cinereus_ (= _dorsalis_, Henry). It may perhaps be considered a serious question whether all (including _alticola_) are not, in reality, geographical races of one species. However, as there is no possibility of ever proving this, it may be best to consider them as representative species, and these specimens of intermediate characters as hybrids.

HABITS. The common familiar Snowbird of the Eastern States is found throughout all North America, east of the Black Hills, from Texas to the Arctic regions. Wherever found, it is at certain seasons a very abundant and an equally familiar bird.

It nests as far south, in mountainous regions, as Virginia, and thence to New York and the northern parts of the New England States, breeding only in the highlands, but descending more and more into the plains as we proceed north. As it is a very hardy bird, its migrations are irregular and uncertain. In some seasons I have observed but few at irregular intervals; and in others, in which the spring was cold and backward, I have met with them in every month except July and August.

Mr. Kennicott found but few birds of this species breeding as far south as Fort Resolution or Slave Lake, and was unable to find any of their nests, though he met with a few birds that were evidently breeding there. He found it afterwards nesting in the greatest abundance about latitude 65°. They were very numerous on the Yukon, and Mr. MacFarlane found them breeding plentifully on the Anderson River, at the edge of the barren-ground region.

The nests found by Mr. Kennicott were all on the ground, more or less concealed in tufts of grass, dry leaves, or projecting roots. Some were in thick woods, others in more open regions, and were lined with moose-hair.

Mr. Ross states that this species frequents all the Mackenzie River region in summer, arriving about the 20th of April, and leaving about the 10th of October. Besides its call-note, or chirp, it has a very pretty song.

Mr. Dall also remarks that they were quite common at Nulato in the spring, not arriving there, however, until about the first of June.

According to Mr. Dresser, it is found occasionally about San Antonio in winter, and Dr. Woodhouse says that it is also common in the Indian Territory in fall and winter. According to Mr. Audubon, it makes its appearance in Louisiana in November, and remains there until early spring. It is also abundant in South Carolina, arriving there in October and leaving in April.

This species was observed by Mr. Aiken in Colorado Territory for about three weeks following March 20, after which they were seen no more.

It breeds more or less abundantly in the northern and eastern portions of Maine. About Calais and in all the islands of the Bay of Fundy, and throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, I found this by far the most common and familiar species, especially at Pictou, where it abounded in the gardens, in repeated instances coming within the outbuildings to build its nests. In a woodshed connected with the dwelling of Mr. Dawson, my attention was called to the nests of several of these birds, built within reach of the hand, and in places where the family were passing and repassing throughout the day. In Pictou they were generally called the Bluebird by the common people. On my ride from Halifax to Pictou, I also found these birds breeding by the roadside, often under the shelter of a projecting bank, in the manner of the _Passerculus savanna_. I afterward found them nesting in similar situations among the White Mountains, the roadsides seeming to be a favorite situation. In habits and notes, at Pictou, they reminded me of the common _Spizella socialis_, but were, if anything, more fearless and confiding, coming into the room where the family were at their meals, and only flying away when they had secured a crumb of sufficient size.

In Western Massachusetts they breed in all parts of the range of Green Mountains, from Blandford to North Adams. They appear about Springfield in October and November, and are for a while abundant, and are then gone until March, when they return in full song, and remain numerous into April, and less common until into May. In the eastern part of the State they are found from October to late in May, with some irregularity and in varying numbers. Mr. Audubon did not meet with any on the coast of Labrador, and Dr. Coues did not find them so abundant as he expected, and did not observe any until the latter part of July, at which time the young were already hatched, and they were associated in small companies. They kept entirely in the thick woods, and seemed rather timid.

Their food is small berries, seeds of grasses and small plants, insects, and larvæ. They seek the latter on the ground, and in the winter are said to frequent the poultry-yards, and avail themselves of the services of the fowls in turning up the earth. On the ground they hop about in a peculiar manner, apparently without moving their feet. At night and during storms they shelter themselves in the thick branches of evergreens, and also in stacks of hay and piles of brushwood.

During the winter the Snowbird appears to be rather more numerous in the Middle and Southern States than in New England. In the former they appear late in October, at first on the borders of woods, searching for food among the fallen and decaying leaves. Later in the season, as the weather becomes colder, and the snow deprives them of this means of feeding, they resort to the roadsides and feed on the seeds of the taller weeds, and to the farm-houses and farm-yards, and even enter within the limits of large cities, where they become very tame and familiar. They are much exposed to attacks from several kinds of Hawks, and the apparent timidity they evince at certain times and places is due to their apprehensions of this danger. The sudden rustle of the wings of a harmless fowl will cause the whole flock to take at once to flight, returning as soon as their alarm is found to be needless, but repeated again and again when the same dreaded sounds are heard.

Neither Wilson, Nuttall, nor Audubon appear to have ever met with the nests or eggs of this bird, though the first met with them breeding both among the Alleghanies, in Virginia, and the highlands of Pennsylvania and New York. In Otsego County, in the latter State, Mr. Edward Appleton was the first to discover and identify their nest and eggs, as cited by Mr. Audubon in the third volume of his Birds of America. They were found in considerable numbers in the town of Otsego. Their nests were on the ground in sheltered positions, some of them with covered entrances. Their complement of eggs was four. One of their nests was sent me, and was characteristic of all I have since seen, having an external diameter of four and a half inches and a depth of two. The cavity was deep and capacious for the bird. The base and periphery of the nest were made of slender strips of bark, coarse straws, fine roots, and horsehair, lined with fine mosses and the fur of smaller animals. The eggs were of a rounded-oval shape; their ground-color is a creamy yellowish-white, marked with spots and blotches of a reddish-brown confluent around the larger portion of the egg, but rarely covering either end. They measure .75 by .60 of an inch, not varying in size from those of _J. oregonus_.

Junco hyemalis, var. aikeni, RIDGWAY.

WHITE-WINGED SNOWBIRD.

SP. CHAR. Generally similar to _J. hyemalis_, but considerably larger, with more robust bill; two white bands on the wing, and three, instead of two, outer tail-feathers entirely white. No. 61,302 ♂, El Paso Co., Colorado, December 11, 1871, C. E. Aiken: Head, neck, jugulum, and entire upper parts clear ash; the back with a bluish tinge; the lores, quills, and tail-feathers darker; middle and secondary wing-coverts rather broadly tipped with white, forming two conspicuous bands. Lower part of the breast, abdomen, and crissum pure white, the anterior outline against the ash of the jugulum convex; sides tinged with ash. Three lateral tail-feathers entirely white, the third, however, with a narrow streak of dusky on the terminal third of the outer web; the next feather mostly plumbeous, with the basal fourth of the outer web, and the terminal half of the inner, along the shaft, white. Wing, 3.40; tail, 3.20; culmen, .50; depth of bill at base, .30; tarsus, .80.

HAB. El Paso County, Colorado.

At first sight, this bird appears to be a very distinct species, being larger than any other North American form, and possessing in the white bands on the wing characters entirely peculiar. Its large size, however, we can attribute to its alpine habitat, agreeing in this respect, as compared with _J. hyemalis_, with the _J. alticola_ of Guatemala, which we can only consider an alpine or somewhat local form of _J. cinereus_. That the white bands on the wing do not constitute a character sufficiently important to be considered of specific value is proved by the fact that in many specimens of _J. oregonus_, and occasionally in _J. hyemalis_, there is sometimes quite a distinct tendency to these bands in the form of obscure white tips to the coverts.

HABITS. But little is known as to the habits of this variety; probably they do not differ from those of its congeners. It was met with by Mr. C. E. Aiken, near Fountain, El Paso County, in Colorado Territory, in the winter of 1871-72. They were rare in the early winter, became rather common during the latter part of February and the first of March, and had all disappeared by the first of April. During winter only males were seen, but, in the spring, the females were the most numerous. They were usually seen singly, or in companies of two or three, and not, like the others, in larger flocks.

Junco oregonus, SCLATER.

OREGON SNOWBIRD.

_Fringilla oregona_, TOWNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VII, 1837, 188.—IB. Narrative, 1839, 345.—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 68, pl. cccxcviii. _Struthus oregonus_, BON. List, 1838.—IB. Consp. 1850, 475.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. & Or. Route; Rep. P. R. R. VI, iv, 1857, 88. _Niphœa oregona_, AUD. Syn. 1839, 107.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 91, pl. clxviii.—CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 134. _Junco oregonus_, SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1857, 7.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 466.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 120 (British Columbia).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 202.—COUES, Pr. Phil. Ac. 1866, 85 (Arizona).—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 284.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 199. _Fringilla hudsonia_, LICHT. Beit. Faun. Cal. in Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, for 1838, 1839, 424 (not _F. hudsonia_, FORSTER). “_Fringilla atrata_, BRANDT, Icon. Rosso-As. tab. ii, f. 8” (CAB.).

SP. CHAR. Head and neck all round sooty-black; this color extending to the upper part of the breast, but not along the sides under the wings, and with convex outline behind. Interscapular region of the back and exposed surface of the wing-coverts and secondaries dark rufous-brown, forming a square patch. A lighter, more pinkish tint of the same on the sides of breast and belly. Rest of under parts clear white. Rump brownish-ash. Upper tail-coverts dusky. Outer two tail-feathers white; the third with only an obscure streak of white. Bill flesh-color, dusky at tip. Legs flesh-color. Length about 6.50 inches; wing, 3.00.

HAB. Pacific coast of the United States to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, and north to Alaska. Stragglers as far east as Fort Leavenworth in winter and Great Bend of Missouri.

Sitka and Oregon specimens have the back of a darker rufous than those from California and the Middle Province, in which this portion of the body, as well as the sides, is paler, and in more abrupt contrast with the head.

Immature and the majority of winter specimens do not have the black of the head and neck so well defined, but edged above more or less with the color of the back, below with light ashy.

The Oregon Snowbird in full plumage is readily distinguishable from the eastern species by the purer white of the belly; the more sharply defined outline of the black of the head passes directly across the upper part of the breast, and is even convex in its posterior outline, without extending down the side of the breast, with its posterior outline strongly concave, as in _hyemalis_. The absence of black or ashy-brown under the wings, with the rufous tinge, are highly characteristic of _oregonus_. The head and neck are considerably blacker; the rufous of the back and wings does not exist in the other. The wings and quills are more pointed; the second quill usually longest, instead of the third, etc. The dusky of the throat reaches in _J. oregonus_ only to the upper part of the breast; to its middle region in _hyemalis_.

Sometimes, in adult males, the middle and greater wing-coverts are faintly tipped with white, indicating two inconspicuous bands.