_Fringilla grammaca_, SAY, in Long’s Exped. R. Mts. I, 1823, 139.—
BON. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 47, pl. v, f. 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839,
17, pl. cccxc. _Chondestes grammaca_, BON. List, 1838.—IB.
Conspectus, 1850, 479.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 456.—COOPER &
SUCKLEY, 200.—MAYNARD, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 112
(Massachusetts).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 193. _Emberiza grammaca_,
AUD. Synopsis, 1839, 101.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841, 63, pl.
clviii.—MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 343. _Chondestes strigatus_,
SWAINSON, Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 435.
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.
[Illustration: _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.