McCOWN'S LONGSPUR 1573 



of his handsome breeding plumage, so that there was no call for me to deprive 

 him of the life he was supporting with so much hardihood along the line of melting 

 snow. I can yet remember how the great tears crossed down my cheeks as I 

 faced the raw south wind in my efforts to watch every movement of the longspur 

 and to take in every detail of his dress. Presently I observed a second McCown's 

 longspur lurking near the first, the advance guards of the troops that were soon 

 to throng the prairies to rear their broods. 



The following Sunday afternoon * * * while walking over the bench I sudden- 

 ly found myself in the midst of a flock of McCown's Longspurs. They were 

 crouching silently in the hollows of the road and in depressions of the ground, 

 and I was not aware of their presence until I startled several near me. When 

 flushed at my approach, after sitting undisturbed until I was only five or six 

 feet away from them, six or eight of them would flitter farther away, uttering a 

 sharp chipping note as they flittered to stations beyond me. 



When I discovered myself among them, by looking carefully around me I 

 could see them crouched upon the ground on all sides of me, their gray attire 

 assimilating them as closely with the background that only by their black cres- 

 centric breast markings could I detect them. Frequently, however, some of them 

 would emit their chipping call in a gentle tone, and thus I could note their posi- 

 tions. In several instances there were fifty of the flock crouched around me, their 

 black breasts showing as black spots on the dreary gray herbage and prairie soil. 



E. S. Cameron (1907) who witnessed their arrival in Custer and 

 Dawson counties in Montana says that "the birds scatter over the 

 ground as they alight, hide in the horse and cattle prints, or other 

 holes, and allow themselves to be almost trodden upon before rising." 



Frances W. Mickey (1943), whose work on the breeding habits of 

 McCown's is the most complete study to date, describes the arrival 

 near Laramie, Wyo. "By the third week in April large flocks of male 

 longspurs were common. These flocks spent most of their time 

 feeding. However, those among them who were selecting territories 

 sang a great deal, not only in characteristic flight song, but also from 

 perches on the tops of rocks or shrubs within their chosen areas." 



Mickey observes that at about the time flight song is initiated and 

 territorial selection begins, "scattered groups of females made their 

 appearance. By the last of April the females became numerous. 

 Later than this, females were seldom seen in groups, for the transients 

 had moved on, and the resident females had separated and spread out 

 over the areas being defending by singing males." 



Extremes for southern Wyoming are March 12 and April 24 

 (Mickey, 1943; McCreary, 1939). In Montana both sexes are 

 common by the first week in May, with early arrivals berween April 

 13 and 18 in Teton county (DuBois, 1937), on April 22 at Terry, and 

 April 28 at Big Sandy in the north central part of the state (Saunders, 

 1921). 



In Alberta John Macoun (1909) found them "in thousands at 

 Medicine Hat and numbers of males were in full song" on May 2, 1894. 

 In Saskatchewan C. G. Harrold (1933) found them "fairly common 



