1588 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 3 



middle pair of rectrices dusky grayish brown margined with paler; rest of tail 

 white, broadly tipped with dull black, except outermost rectrices, where the 

 blackish, if present, is very much reduced in extent; under parts (except chest) 

 white, tinged with pale gray laterally, the plumage deep gray beneath the surface; 

 bill brownish, dusky at tip; iris brown; tarsi brown; toes dusky. 



Adult male in winter. — Black areas concealed by broad tips to feathers, brown 

 on pileum, buffy on chest; otherwise not essentially different from summer plumage. 



Adult female in summer. — Above, light buffy brown (pale wood brown or isabella 

 color), streaked with blackish, the streaks broadest on back and scapulars; wings 

 dusky, with light buffy brown edgings (broadest on greater coverts and tertials, 

 narrower, paler and grayer on primaries, and primary coverts), the middle coverts 

 broadly tipped with buffy, the lesser coverts pale brownish gray; tail as in adult 

 male; sides of head (including broad superciliary stripe) light dull buffy, relieved 

 by a rather broad postocular streak of brownish; under parts pale buffy, passing 

 into white on abdomen and under tail-coverts; a brown or dusky streak (submalar) 

 along each side of throat. 



Adult female in winter. — Similar to summer plumage, but dusky streaks on back, 

 etc., narrower and less distinct, and under parts rather more strongly tinged with 

 buffy. 



Young. — Back, scapulars, and rump dusky, with distinct pale buffy margins 

 to the feather; pileum and hindneck streaked with dusky and pale buffy; middle 

 wing-coverts broadly margined, and greater coverts broadly tipped with pale 

 buffy or buffy whitish; chest rather broadly streaked with dusky; otherwise much 

 like adult female. 



Food. — The principal items in the diet of McCown's longspur, 

 according to Roberts (1932), consists of weed seed: pigweed, ragweed, 

 bindweed, goosefoot, wild sunflower, sedges, foxtail, and other grass 

 seeds; grain; grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects. On their 

 wintering grounds in New Mexico A. L. Heermann (1859) says that 

 the birds include berries in their diet. Richard H. Rough (1946) 

 states that "Grasshoppers are generally their staple summer food, 

 seeds of grasses and weeds at other seasons." DuBois (1937a) con- 

 siders the food of the young to be principally grasshoppers "with now 

 and then a moth or a caterpillar." Mickey (1943) lists the grass- 

 hoppers which seemed to predominate in the bulk of the food: Arphia 

 pseud onietanus, Gamnula pellucida, Melanoplus jemur-rubrum, and 

 Trimerotropis sp. 



From such data one can only conclude that economically McCown's 

 longspur is to be counted among the beneficial species of birds, despite 

 the comment of Arthur L. Goodrich, Jr. (1946) on wintering birds in 

 Kansas: "It is reported that this race and other longspurs may be 

 responsible for the destruction of large quantities of winter wheat in 

 some areas of the west." Perhaps the subject has not yet been 

 sufficiently investigated. 



Behavior. — The following account by Grinnell (Ludlow, 1875) sug- 

 gests the kind of mate attachment in McCown's attributed to the 

 mated Canada goose and the bald eagle pair. He writes: 



