(_Zonotrichia leucophrys_) Finch family
_Length_--7 inches. A little larger than the English sparrow.
_Male_--White head, with four longitudinal black lines marking
off a crown, the black-and-white stripes being of about equal
width. Cheeks, nape, and throat gray. Light gray underneath,
with some buff tints. Back dark grayish brown, some feathers
margined with gray. Two interrupted white bars across wings.
Plain, dusky tail; total effect, a clear ashen gray.
_Female_--With rusty head inclining to gray on crown. Paler
throughout than the male.
_Range_--From high mountain ranges of western United States
(more rarely on Pacific slope) to Atlantic Ocean, and from
Labrador to Mexico. Chiefly south of Pennsylvania.
_Migrations_--October. April. Irregular migrant in Northern
States. A winter resident elsewhere.
The large size and handsome markings of this aristocratic-looking
Northern sparrow would serve to distinguish him at once, did he not
often consort with his equally fine-looking white-throated cousins
while migrating, and so too often get overlooked. Sparrows are such
gregarious birds that it is well to scrutinize every flock with
especial care in the spring and autumn, when the rarer migrants are
passing. This bird is more common in the high altitudes of the Sierra
Nevada and Rocky Mountains than elsewhere in the United States. There
in the lonely forest it nests in low bushes or on the ground, and
sings its full love-song, as it does in the northern British
provinces, along the Atlantic coast; but during the migrations it
favors us only with selections from its repertoire. Mr. Ernest
Thompson says, "Its usual song is like the latter half of the
white-throat's familiar refrain, repeated a number of times with a
peculiar, sad cadence and in a clear, soft whistle that is
characteristic of the group." "The song is the loudest and most
plaintive of all the sparrow songs," says John Burroughs. "It begins
with the words _fe-u, fe-u, fe-u_, and runs off into trills and
quavers like the song sparrow's, only much more touching." Colorado
miners tell that this sparrow, like its white-throated relative, sings
on the darkest nights. Often a score or more birds are heard singing
at once after the habit of the European nightingales, which, however,
choose to sing only in the moonlight.