CALAMOSPIZA BICOLOR, LARK BUNTING. 



163 



No example of a PassercUinc form was taken by either expedition ; but the P. " sclxis- 

 facca " was originally based upon a specimen from the Platte, within the region em- 

 braced in the present report. 



I am much inclined to doubt the distinctness of any of the currently reputed species 

 oi PassereUa, but, as I observed in the Key, it may be as well to allow P. townscndii to 

 rest upon its characters until its intergradation with iliaca is proven. In any event, 

 P '■' schistacea" goes with townsendii, as a paler variety. 



CALAMOSPIZA BICOLOE, (Towns.) Bp. 



Lark Bunting. 



Fringilla hicolor, Towns., Journ. Phila. Acad, vii, 1837, 189 ; Narr. 1839, 346.— AuD., 

 Orn. Biog. v, 1S39, 19, pi. .390. 



Calamosplza hicolor, Bp., List, 1838, 30 ; Consp. Av. i, 1850, 475.— Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 492.— 

 Bd., Pr. Phila. Acad. Nov. 18.59 (Cape St. Lucas).— Heerm., P. R. R. Rep. x, 1859, 

 Route 32d par.. Birds, 13 (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona). — Hayd., Rep. 1862, 

 166.— DUESS., Ibis, 1865, 490 (Texas).— Coues, Pr. Phila. Acad. 1H60, 86 (Ari- 

 zona).- Stev., U. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. 1870, 465 (Wyoming).— Coop., B. Cal. i. 

 1870, 225.— Allen, Bull. M. C. Z. iii, 1872, 137, 177.— Hold., Pr. Best. Soc. 1872, 

 201 (Wyoming).— Coues, Key, 1872, 147.— Snow, B. Kans. 1873, 7.— B. B. & R., 

 N. A. B. ii, 1874, 61, pi. 29, f. 2, 3. 



ConjdaJina hkoJor, Aud., Svn. 1839, 130. — AuD., B. Am. iii, 1841, 195, pi. 202.— Maxim., 

 J. f. O. vi, 1858, 347. 



Dolichonyx hicolor, Nutt., Man. i, 2d ed. 1840, 203. 



Hob. — United States, Plains to the Rocky Mountains. Southward to Mexico, and 

 across to Lower California. 



List of Specimens. 



19276 

 19352 

 19353 



34 



Fort Benton.. 

 Bighorn Mts. . 

 do 



$ 



July 6, 1860 



May 30, 1860 



do 



F. V. Hayden. 



G. H. Trook.. 

 do 



6.12 



7.00 

 7.00 



11.25 

 11.25 



3.60 

 3.25 

 3.25 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition. — 5375, seventj' miles above Yellowstone ; 5076, Medi- 

 cine Butte ; 8928-29-31, Loup Fork of Platte. 



Later Expeditions. — 60392-5, Camp Curling and Bitter Cottonwood ; 60760, North 

 Butte. 



The Lark Bunting is one of the mo.st singularly specialized of all our 

 fringilline forms. As implied in its name, it bas somewhat the habits 

 of a Lark, and shares the long inner secondary quills. An eminently 

 terrestrial bird, yet the hind claw is neither lengthened nor straight- 

 ened as is usual with passerine birds frequenting the ground almost 

 exclusively. The bill is that of ca Grosbeak, being shaped almost ex- 

 actly like that of Goniaphea accrulea for instance, and the sexual differ- 

 ences in plumage are as great as in that bird. But a more remarkable 

 circumstance still is the seasonal change of plumage, which is exactly 

 correspondent with that of the Bobolink, to which the species bears a 

 general similarity in coloration. This fact was first noticed, I believe, 

 by Mr. Allen, in the paper above quoted : "After the moulting season, 

 the males assume the plumage of the female, the chauge in eolor being 

 similar to that of the males of Dolichoni/.r oryzivortiP There is still 

 another curious analogy, that the same writer has brought out : " It 

 has habits that .stiongly recall the Yellow-brea.sted Chat, singing gen- 

 erally on the wing, hovering in the same manner as that bird, while its 

 notes are so similar to those of the Chat, as to be scarcely distinguish- 

 able from them." 



This author remarks that bo found the bird very wary and dilhcult 

 to shoot — a fact at variance with my own exi)erience. I found it com- 

 nmn from the plains in Kansas to the Baton Mountains, westward of 

 which 1 never saw it. In some places it was exticmciv abundant, and 

 fairly to be considered the characteristic species. Tliis was in Juno, 



