BIRDS OF KANSAS. 437 



Iris brown; bill — ends, and occasionally ridge, brown to 

 dusky, rest dull yellow, sometimes bluish; legs brown; feet and 

 claws dark brown. 



Prof. J. A. Allen, in his list of birds observed in the vicinity 

 of Fort Hays, Kansas, from May 26th, to July 3d, 1871, says: 



"Common out on the plains almost everywhere, it being one 

 of the most interesting and characteristic species of the plains. 

 It has a short, shrill, but very sweet song, which is often uttered 

 while on the wing. It is very wary for so small a bird, and has 

 the habit of circling round the observer when disturbed for sev- 

 eral minutes together, approaching tantalizingly near, with feints 

 of nearer approach, but generally keeping well out of range. 

 The nest is a very neat, though slight structure, placed of course 

 upon the ground, and is composed of dry iBne grass and root- 

 lets. The eggs are generally five, blotched and streaked with 

 rusty, on a white ground. Full sets of freshly laid eggs were 

 first found about June 3d. 



"The plumage varies greatly in color in different individuals 

 of even the same sex, the variation being generally in respect 

 to the purity and intensity of the colors. The most highly- 

 colored males have the breast and middle of the abdomen more 

 or less strongly tinged with very bright ferruginous; others have 

 these parts pure black; while in others still the black is obscured 

 by the feathers having brownish white margins. The lesser 

 coverts vary from gray to black. The red tinge on the abdo- 

 men seems merely indicative of a high state of plumage, those 

 thus marked also having the lesser coverts black; but they are 

 also black in some specimens that are tinged with red. The 

 highest colored female (the sex determined by dissection) was 

 nearly as brightly colored as the paler colored males, having 

 the same chestnut collar, and the black on the breast nearly as 

 distinct as some of the males. It was also nearly as large, and 

 until dissected was supposed to be an immature male. Thirty 

 specimens of the bird were obtained, and three full sets eggs." 



