BIBDS OF KAJVSAS.- 439 



Iris brown; bill — terminal half of ridge and tips dnsky, rest 

 dull flesh colored; legs and feet dark brown; claws black. 



This species inhabits much the same region as the Chestnut- 

 collared, and they are very similar in their habits and actions, 

 frequenting in flocks the high, dry prairies, old trails and places 

 where the grass is short, where they ramble about and search 

 for food. When approached, usually squat close to the ground, 

 in the hope that they will be passed unobserved, but when 

 flushed rise in a quick, uncertain manner, but soon bunch to- 

 gether, and fly in a wavy, circling course for a short distance, 

 and then drop back and heedlessly resume their search for food. 

 During their flights, which are undulating, they utter a chip note 

 at each stroke of the wing. 



Their song, heard in the early spring and in the breeding 

 season, is composed of soft, twittering, pleasing notes. 



Their nests are placed on the ground, in rather open, exposed 

 situations, and are loosely constructed of dry grasses and lined 

 with the finer leaves of the same and (usually) hairs and feath- 

 ers. Eggs three to six, .80x. 60; dull greenish to olive white, 

 speckled and spotted with varying shades of reddish brown to 

 black; in form, oval. 



Genus POOCSTES Baikd. 



"Bill rather large; upper outline slightly decurved toward the end, lower 

 straight; commissure slightly concave. Tarsus about equal to the middle toe; 

 outer toe a little longer than the inner, its claw reaching to the concealed base 

 of the middle claw; hind toe reaching to the middle of the middle claw. Wings 

 usually long, reaching to the middle of the tail, as far as the coverts, and pointed; 

 the primaries considerably longer than the secondaries, which are not much 

 surpassed by the tertiaries; second and third quills longest; first little shorter, 

 about equal to the fourth, shorter than tail; the outer feathers scarcely shorter; 

 the feathers rather stiff; each one acuniinate and sharply pointed; the feathers 

 broad nearly to the end, when they are obliquely truncate. Streaked with 

 brown above everywhere; beneath, on the breast and sides. The lateral tail 

 feather is white. Slioulders chestnut brown. The essential character of the 

 genus consists in the long and pointed wings, longer than the tail and without 

 long tertials, and the rather stiff forked tail, with its acute feathers." 



