350 Birds of Colorado 



The male in summer has the back, scapulars, greater part of the 

 primaries, inner secondaries, alula, greater wing-coverts and the middle 

 tail-feathers black, rest of the plumage white ; the female in winter 

 has the head and neck more or less streaked like the back, and the 

 rusty wash not quite so strong as in the winter male ; the breeding 

 female is without the rusty-brown wash. 



Distribution. — The northern parts of the Old and New Worlds, breeding 

 in the arctic or subarctic regions from northern Labrador and Alaska, 

 migrating south in winter, normally to the northern states, irregularly 

 as far south as Georgia, Ohio and Colorado. 



The Snow-Bunting is a rare and somewhat irregular winter visitor 

 to Colorado. It is most often met with on the plains in the north-east 

 comer of the State : Fort Collins, Loveland, Boulder and Denver are 

 mentioned as localities by Cooke ; there are a pair in the Aiken collec- 

 tion taken near Colorado Springs in the winter of 1876-7, and Morrison 

 (88) saw a small flock of six on March 1st during a heavy snow-storm 

 at Fort Lewis in La Plata co. ; though normally only found on the 

 plains, it was observed by Carter on one occasion between Breckenridge 

 and Middle Park at about 8,000 feet. 



Habits. — ^The Snow-Bunting is a common bird in. the 

 arctic regions as far north as explorations have been 

 made ; it comes south in winter in vast flocks, but hardly 

 comes regularly so far south as Colorado, though common 

 in Wyoming and Nebraska. Its food consists chiefly 

 of seeds in \dnter, and as long as these are to be obtained 

 the birds Uve happily, even when the thermometer is 

 30° below zero. 



Genus CALCARIUS. 



Terrestrial Finches of medium size — wings three to four inches — with 

 a small bill, which, however is larger than that of Plectrophenax, and 

 has the upper mandible as deep or deeper than the lower ; nostrils 

 exposed ; wings and tail as in Plectrophenax, the latter slightly longer, 

 exceeding -7 in wing, doubly rounded and more than half concealed 

 by the elongated coverts ; claw of hind toe slender, elongated and 

 nearly straight ; plumage streaked ; tail-feathers with white and black, 

 obUquely arranged. 



The Longspurs are also circumpolar in distribution, breeding in the 

 arctic regions of both hemispheres and on the great plains of North 

 America ; they migrate south in winter. One of the three American 

 species (Calcarius pictus) is said to be common in Kansas by Goas, and 



