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