1574 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 tart 3 



from May 20 to 26 in the Lake Johnston area south of Moose Jaw." 

 Macoun (1909) reports them as "common at Crane Lake in June", 

 presumably the first part of June. Crane Lake lies in the south- 

 western part of the Province north of Highway No. 1 at the village of 

 Piapot. Early dates are Apr. 7, 1947 and Apr. 16, 1948 at Bladworth, 

 some 50 miles southeast of Saskatoon; however, P. L. Beckie (1958), 

 an observer there, writes, "Although I often see the McCown's in 

 migration * * * I have no records of resident birds for this area." 



In these northern latitudes there are intriguing records of McCown's 

 wandering rather widely from its wonted purlieus. Macoun (1909) 

 reports that "one was seen on the shore of an island in Lesser Slave 

 Lake" and Salt and Wilk (1958) call attention to the fact that "wan- 

 derers have been taken * * * on an island in Lesser Slave Lake." 

 This is nearly 500 miles from what seems to be its area of greatest 

 density in southeastern Alberta. Other points where McCown's has 

 been collected in the province are Beaverhill Lake and Sandy Creek 

 near Athabasca, the first east and the second about 100 miles north 

 of Edmonton. In British Columbia Major Allan Brooks (1900) took 

 a male and two females "on the lower Fraser River Valley at Chilli- 

 wack", the male on June 2, 1887, and the females on the same day, 

 1889. William Brewster (1893) acknowledged this unusual record in 

 the AUK, adding Brooks' postscript to the observation: "I passed 

 this place every day but saw no others, either there or elsewhere in 

 British Columbia." Robert R. Tajdor points out in a letter (1964) 

 that during the summer of 1964 members of a party from the Sas- 

 katchewan Museum of Natural History at Regina "collected a 

 McCown's longspur on the Hanson Lake Road, in northern Sas- 

 katchewan." 



In Alberta Salt and Wilk (1958) extend the range of McCown's as 

 far north as "Youngstown on the east" and "Calgary on the West." 

 The inclusion of Calgary brings up the matter of McCown's somewhat 

 erratic appearances and disappearance. In 1897 Macoun (1909) 

 "Observed a number at Calgary, Alta., on June 19"; and Salt and 

 Wilk (1958) report "Eggs * * * (Calgary, May 28)". Whether 

 these records are sporadic appearances, a trait that seems charac- 

 teristic of this species, is intriguing in the light of an observation by 

 Timothy Myres of the University of Alberta at Calgary. Dr. Myres 

 writes in a letter (1965) that "there is nothing known on McCown's 

 Longspur by local naturalists." 



Territory. — As F. W. Mickey (1943) observed on the Plains of 

 Laramie, during the third week in April with large flocks of males 

 already present, the beginning of territorial selection soon became 

 evident. Alert to their behavior on first arriving in Fergus County, 

 Mont., Silloway (1903) writes: 



