or wanting. Entire under parts buff or rich yellowish-brown, paler on the chin and throat, which, like the forebreast, are obsoletely streaked with dusky. Tibia white. Two or three outer feathers of the tail only white. Bill dusky-brown above and at the end, paler below. Feet light brown, toes darker. In no stage of plumage of P. ornatus are the under parts extensively buffy, while all the tail-feathers, excepting perhaps the middle pair, are white at the base.

These birds were not noticed in the immediate valley of the Red River; but no sooner had I passed the Pembina Mountains than I found them in profusion. Throughout this part of the country they are wonderfully abundant, even exceeding in the aggregate either Baird's Bunting or the Missouri Skylark. Their numbers continued undiminished to the furthest point reached by my party during the first season-the headwaters of Mouse River-and they were still in the country when I left, the second week in October. The next season I noticed but few along the Upper Missouri and Lower Milk River, where P. maccowni became abundant; they were more common along Frenchman's River, but some little distance further westward I lost sight of them, and in a letter transmitted to the "American Naturalist", from the Two Forks of Milk River, I was induced to suppose I had got beyond their range; this, however, proved not to be the case, for subsequently I saw them at intervals till I entered the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The interesting relation between the habitat of this species and of P. maccowni is more fully expressed under head of the latter; here I will only advert to its great abundance in the whole Red River watershed west of that river itself, its sudden falling-off in numbers at the point where the Coteau de Missouri crosses 49°, yet its persistence westward to the Rocky Mountains.

My first specimens were secured July 14, 1873, at which date the early broods were already on wing. Uniting of several families had scarcely begun, however, nor were small flocks made up, apparently, till the first broods had, as a general thing, been left to themselves, the parents busying themselves with a second set of eggs. Then straggling troops, consisting chiefly of birds of the year, were almost continually seen, mixing freely with Baird's Buntings and the Skylarks; in fact, most of the con

gregations of the prairie birds that were successively disturbed by our advancing wagon-trains consisted of all three of these, with a considerable sprinkling of Savanna Sparrows, Shore Larks, and Bay-winged Buntings. The first eggs I secured were taken July 18, nearly a week after I had found young on wing; these were fresh; other nests examined at the same time contained newly hatched young. Again, I have found fresh eggs so late as the first week in August. During the second season, the first eggs were taken July 6, and at that time there were already plenty of young birds flying. The laying-season must consequently reach over a period of at least two months. I was not on the ground early enough to determine the commencement exactly; but supposing a two weeks' incubation, and about the same length of time occupied in rearing the young in the nest, the first batches of eggs must be laid early in June to give the sets of young which fly by the first of July. There is obviously time for the same pair to get a second, if not a third, brood off their hands by the end of August; I should say that certainly two, and probably three, broods are reared, as a rule. The result of all this is, that from the end of June until the end of August young birds in every state of plumage, and the parents in various degrees of wear and tear, are all found together. The young males very soon show some black on the under parts, but do not gain the distinctive head-markings until the next season. The completion of general moult is delayed until September, to nearly the time the Prairie Chickens have theirs; with its completion, both old and young acquire a much clearer and richer plumage than that worn during the summer. While the summer adults rarely show the bend of the wing black, this feature comes out strongly in September. Comparatively few of the birds of this region show the mahogany-color on the under parts, described as being very conspicuous in those of some other portions of the country. Many of the females, in high plumage, are scarcely distinguishable from the males. The extent of white on the tail is a conspicuous feature when the birds are flying, serving for their instant recognition among their allies. There is a good deal of variation in dimensions, as indicated by the measurements given in the table beyond.

The nest, of course, is placed on the ground, usually beneath some little tuft of grass or weeds, which effectually conceals it. Like that of other ground-building sparrows, it is sunk flush with the surface of the ground, thin at the bottom, but with thicker and tolerably firm brim; it consists simply of a few grasses and weed-stems, for the most part circularly disposed. In size, the cup is about 3 inches across the brim and nearly 2 in depth. During the first season, I only found four eggs or young in a nest; but I afterward took one containing six eggs. These measure about long by 3 broad, of an ordinary shape. They are difficult to describe as to color, for the marking is intricate as well as very variable here as elsewhere in the genus. I have called them "grayish-white, more or less clouded and mottled with pale

Coll. No.

purplish-gray, which confers the prevailing tone; this is overlaid with numerous surface markings of points, scratches, and small spots of dark brown, wholly indeterminate in distribution and number, but always conspicuous, being sharply displayed upon the subdued ground color." On those occasions when I approached a nest containing eggs, the female usually walked off quietly, after a little flutter, to some distance, and then took wing; at other times, however, when there were young in the nest, both parents hovered close overhead, with continuous cries. During the summer, when the old birds are breeding, and those of the year are still very young, they are very familiar and heedless, and will scarcely get out of the way. In September, when the large flocks make up, and are joined by P. pictus from the north, they become much wilder, fly more strongly, and are then procured with some difficulty. I never observed the dense flocking that some writers describe; the congregation I always found to be a straggling one, so that single birds only could be shot on the wing. In the winter, however, or during the migration, the case may be different. The ordinary flight is perfectly undulatory, and not very rapid; but in the fall the birds have a way of tearing about, when startled, with a wayward course, which renders them difficult to shoot on the wing. The ordinary call-note is a chirp, of peculiar character, but not easy to describe; besides this, the males during the breeding-season have a pleasing twittering song, uttered while they are flying. The chirp is usually emitted with each impulse of the wings. The birds scatter indiscriminately over the prairie, but are particularly fond of the trails made by buffalo or by wagon-trains, where they can run without impediment, and where doubtless they find food which is not so accessible upon undisturbed ground. Though so generally distributed, there are some spots where they are particularly numerous, and others again, where, for no assignable reason, they are not to be seen. This curious sort of semi-colonization is witnessed in the cases of many other prairie birds, and some of the smaller rodent mammals, like the pouched gophers and field-mice.

Wing.

Nature of specimen, and remarks.

PLECTROPHANES MACCOWNI, Lawr.

BLACK-BREASTED LONGSPUR.

This species was never seen in the Red River region, and I do not think it occurs in that watershed, which is so thickly populated in summer with P. ornatus, as already described. It seems to be one of the many birds that mark the natural division between that region and the Missouri Basin. I first encountered it June 21, 1874, a day's march above Fort Buford. The specimen obtained was a young one, not quite able to fly. As we progressed toward the Milk River, the bird grew more and more abundant, and it occurred throughout the country thence to the Rocky Mountains. There were some points on the route where it was scarcely to be seen (as is usually the case with the small prairie birds); but this was a matter of slight local distribution, for the species was equally numerous, " in spots," throughout the country. P. ornatus accompanied it in some numbers about as far as Frenchman's River, where both species were breeding, and a few stragglers were noted along the whole way; but, in spite of this admixture, P. maccowni is to be considered the characteristic species of the genus in the Missouri watershed at this latitude, just as P. ornatus is in that of the Red River. Maccown's Longspur was very abundant in the country about Frenchman's River, and equally so about the headwaters of Milk River and in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It does not appear, however, to enter the mountains themselves, but stops just short of the beginning of the trees,-just where the Spermophili give way to the Geomyida and the Badgers to the Woodchucks. Of its periods of nidification and laying I am less precisely informed than in the case of P. ornatus. The fledgling taken June 21 indicates an early June brood, corresponding to the first one of P. ornatus; but I took no eggs after July 10, when the only set in the collection was secured. Young birds in all stages were common from this time until the latter part of August, and I have no doubt that at least two broods are reared each season. The nidification is substantially the same as that of P. ornatus. The few sets of eggs I have examined are of the same size as those of the bird just named, and closely resemble the lighter-colored varieties of the latter. The ground-color, however, is dull white, without the purplishgray clouding so noticeable in the eggs of P. ornatus. The markings are rather sparse and obscurely mottled, with some heavier, sharper, scratchy ones, all of different shades of brown. According to analogy, it is reasonable to presume upon the same wide range of variation in this case that is known to obtain elsewhere in the genus Plectrophanes. While the females are incubating, the males have a very pretty way of displaying themselves and of letting the music out at the same time. They soar to a little height, and then, fixing the extended wings at an angle of forty-five degrees with their bodies, sink slowly down to the