McCOWN'S LONGSPUR 1595 



Fall. — No sooner are the fledglings on the wing, fortified against 

 the ardors of the migration journey, then they begin the annual 

 flocking. In the Canadian Provinces the gathering begins by the 

 first of August; by the early part of the month, writes Mr. Bent 

 (1908), in southwestern Saskatchewan "almost all of the Longspurs 

 of both species, had disappeared from the plains." 



As they continue their southerly movement, their ever-increasing 

 numbers growing larger and larger, they string out over the prairies 

 like tiny black pepper kernels flung across the sky, rising up high 

 and thickening darkly into compact groups, masses twisting and 

 turning, then slanting down, lightening as they thin out, sometimes 

 so near the ground that an obstruction like a fence sends them bending 

 upward to flow serpentlike over the obstacle; at other times they 

 sweep tree-high from one seed-rich area to another. At last the 

 groups swell into the hundreds, so that by the time they leave southern 

 Montana in September they are seen in immense congregations like 

 that which P. M. Thorne (1895) reports on the Little Missouri in 

 1889. 



After August 10, Visher (1912) considered them numerous on the 

 plains of south central South Dakota in the years from 1901 to 1911. 

 In Montana, Saunders (1921) has a September 27 date for the north 

 central portion. By September the birds have reached Oklahoma 

 (Sutton, 1934) although W. W. Cooke (1914) during 1883-84 dates 

 the arrival there as January 19. By October 16 they have arrived 

 in Arizona and by November 5 (Lloyd, 1887) in the western part of 

 Texas. Here as well as in New Mexico and northern Old Mexico 

 they await the stimulus that will send them north again. 



Winter. — A. L. Heermann (1859) who was with the topographical 

 surveyors along the 32nd parallel of north latitude during the season 

 of 1873-74 declares: "I found this species congregated in large flocks 

 * * * engaged in gleaning the seeds from the scanty grass on the vast 

 arid plains of New Mexico. Insects and berries form also part of 

 their food, in search of which they show great activity, running about 

 with ease and celerity. From Dr. Henry, U.S.A., I learned that in 

 spring large flocks are seen at Fort Thorne, having migrated hither 

 from the north the fall previous." 



George B. Sennett (1878), who was on the lower Rio Grande during 

 the season of 1877, writes of McCown's longspur: 



I found these only about Galveston. They were in large flocks, and associated 

 with them were Eremophila chrysoloema, Southwestern Skylark, and Ncocorys 

 spraguii, Missouri Skylark. They frequented the sandy ridges adjoining the 

 salt-marshes. In habits they reminded me of P. lapponicus, Lapland Longspur, 

 as I saw them in Minnesota last year. When flushed, they dart from side to side, 

 taking a swift, irregular course, never very high, and suddenly drop down among 

 the grass-tussocks, with their heads towards you. They are so quiet and so much 



