_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.