1632 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part s 



the air, the flight became undulating and they circled for several minutes. Usually 

 then calls from companions hidden in the cover brought them again to the ground. 

 They were especially averse to taking flight if the wind was high. They seemed 

 to remain apart from the Savannah and LeConte sparrows, other longspurs, and 

 horned larks that were also present in small numbers in these fields. 



In a letter to Mr. Bent, W. Kowan remarks that "they have a 

 peculiar habit of running suddenly for a short distance before again 

 becoming immobile. The run is always accompanied by a musical 

 little twitter, a useful prelude that helped us materially to pick out 

 the bird the moment it moved. The birds always scattered widely 

 on settling. We collected specimens entirely at random, picking off 

 the birds as they revealed themselves, so that theoretically we should 

 have had equal numbers of both sexes, yet we got about three males to 

 one female. This seems to indicate that males are in excess. The 

 same thing applies to both flocks noted." 



At the Oxford, Ohio, airport we have found the birds often quite 

 unwary, and have approached them to within 15 or 20 feet. When 

 first flushed they usually fly close to the ground for a distance of only 

 5 or 10 yards before settling again, but after repeated flushing they 

 generally spiral high into the air, sometimes almost out of sight, and 

 may remain aloft for several minutes. In Ohio and in northwestern 

 Indiana fields, Smith's longspurs seldom associate with the Lapland 

 longspurs, unless they are forced into close proximity by such circum- 

 stances as a general disturbance of a migratory concentration, or by 

 crowding during the peak of the Lapland's massive migration. 



Field marks. — Smith's longspur has the white outer tail feathers of 

 the other longspurs, but in all plumages is generally a much burner 

 bird, with a slightly slenderer, more pointed bill, and yellowish legs. 

 The male in spring is unmistakable with his striking triangular black 

 and white head marking; adult males often retain their distinctive 

 white-tipped black lesser wing coverts in winter. Females and imma- 

 tures closely resemble their Lapland counterparts, but may be dis- 

 tinguished by their greater buffiness, and particularly by their buffy 

 abdomens, which are concolor with the breast, and not almost white 

 as in the Lapland. 



Fall and winter. — As Worth Randle and I have pointed out (Kemsies 

 and Randle, 1964), regrettably little is known of the migratory move- 

 ments and winter distribution of Smith's longspur. The recent efforts 

 of Coffey (1954), Jeeter (1953), Imhof (1962), and Sheppard (1959) 

 have added greatly to our knowledge of seasonal movements and 

 shown the wintering grounds to be considerably more extensive than 

 was previously thought (see distribution section). But whether 

 individual birds follow the same migratory paths in spring and fall, 



