1578 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 3 



be described, "was built on the ground and is constructed of decom- 

 posing woody fibre and grasses, with a lining of finer grasses." 

 Grinnell (1875), who encountered the species southwest of Fort 

 Lincoln in North Dakota in 1874, found that the nest "resembles, 

 both in position and construction" that of the Chestnut-collared 

 longspur. In Minnesota Rolla P. Currie (1890) found two nests: 

 "Composed of fine round grasses and fine dried weed steins, lined 

 with very fine grasses a few horse-hairs. One nest was on the ground 

 in a clump of grass and the other in a small bush." Currie's observa- 

 tion is interesting; no where else have I found reference to McCown's 

 building a nest above the ground. 



In Nebraska M. A. Carriker (1902) located a nest in the dry hills of 

 the northwest corner of the state near the Wyoming line. The nest 

 was "sunken flush with the surface of the ground and made of dried 

 prairie grass blades and rootlets." There was "no attempt whatever 

 at concealment or protection by weed or tuft of grass." DuBois (1935) 

 and Mickey (1943) also remark on nests where concealment was at a 

 minimum. DuBois writes that one such nest was placed "in a 

 grazed pasture" with "no standing grass about it — just three or four 

 scant shoots. At another the growing tufts nearby had been cropped 

 off by stock." 



Of a nest in Fergus County, Montana, Silloway (1903) writes, 

 "The site was a depression among grass-blades, open above. The 

 nest was made of dried grass felted at the bottom with a few downy 

 pistils, the style of architecture being very similar to that followed by 

 the horned lark. The cavity was two and one-half inches in diameter 

 and two inches in depth". In Saskatchewan the Mocouns (1909) 

 came upon a nest that was "a rather deep hole in the prairie, lined 

 with a little dried grass." And Barnes, quoted by Ferry (1910), 

 took a nest on June 4 near Regina. "It was located in a depression 

 near the road on the open prairie where there was practically no 

 grass. It had been run over by a wagon, crushing the nest out of 

 shape. The bird, however, was on the nest and the eggs were 

 uninjured." 



DuBois (1935) speaks of the oddity of nests "placed near old dried 

 heaps of horse droppings; one was a foot away, one was quite close, 

 one was at the edge of such a point of vantage, while another was 

 in the midst of a scattered pile which had become very dry and 

 weathered." 



In Wyoming Mickey (1943) found that of a group of 40 nests, 

 "nineteen were beside grass clumps, fifteen beside rabbitbrush, five 

 beside horsebrush and one between rabbitbrush and horsebrush." 

 In Montana Silloway (1902, 1903) found nests in shallow depressions 

 at the base of small Coronilla bushes. "A very common site," he 



