172 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 233 



Chestnut-collared Longspur 



Calcarius ornatus (Townsend) 



This longspur is probably a not uncommon local victim of the north- 

 western race of the brown-headed cowbird. The paucity of records 

 seems to be due to a scarcity of observers in the breeding range of the 

 host. In the country around Grand Forks, North Dakota, R. P. 

 Currie (1892, p. 243) observed that the nests of the chestnut-collared 

 longspur frequently were victimized; 1, 2, or 3 cowbird eggs were 

 discovered in various nests. Raine (1894, p. 120) wrote that he found 

 this species to be victimized, and Alfred Eastgate informed me that 

 he had also found this to be the case in North Dakota. There are 

 three parasitized sets of eggs collected by Elmer T. Judd from Townes 

 County, North Dakota, in the U.S. National Museum. In the 

 collections of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology there is 

 another set from Townes County, taken on May 27, 1894. 



I am informed by Professor R. E. Ware that, among other speci- 

 mens in the Harllee collection at Clemson College, there is a para- 

 sitized set of eggs of this longspui", taken on June 19, 1933, at Deering, 

 North Dakota, by George C. Wliithey. This is one of the very few 

 recent records of the bird as a cowbird fosterer, but, as noted above, 

 the chestnut-collared longspur had been reported as a frequent host 

 at Grand Forks, North Dakota in the 1890's. North Dakota is the 

 only area where this longspur has been observed repeatedly as a 

 cowbu'd victim. 



Mr. S. J. Darcus wi"ote to me that he had found a parasitized nest 

 at Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, on June 1, 1920. 



