1596 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 i-abt 3 



the color of their surroundings that they are seen with difficulty. They fly in 

 such scattered flocks that a single discharge of the gun can seldom bring down 

 more than one or two. That they extend farther south than the vicinity of 

 Galveston I very much doubt, for we would, in all probability, have noticed 

 them if they had been farther down the coast. 



In winter its peregrinations must occasionally have been extensive, 

 for Coale (1877) has a note about its appearance at Champaign and 

 Chicago, Illinois, which suggests a field of study as yet largely un- 

 touched : 



While looking over a box of Snow-buntings and Shore Larks in the market, Jan- 

 uary 15, 1877, I found a specimen of Plectrophanes maccowni, shot at Champaign, 

 Illinois. January 17, another box containing Lapland Longspurs was sent from 

 the same place, and among them was a second specimen of P. maccowni, which 

 is now in the collection of C. N. Holden, Jr., Chicago. January 19 I obtained a 

 third specimen from the same source, which has been sent to Mr. E. W. Nelson, 

 of this city. They were all males, showing plainly the chestnut coloring on the 

 bend of the wing and the peculiar white markings of the tail. This is, I think, 

 the first record of the occurrance of this bird in Illinois, if not east of Kansas. 



That some birds may overwinter within the breeding range or 

 near its borders is indicated by the Christmas Bird Counts listing 

 200 birds from Huron, S. Dak., in 1953 and 15 from Billings, Mont., 

 in 1956. 



Distribution 



Range. — Southern portions of Prairie Provinces south to northeastern 

 Sonora, northern Durango, and southern Texas. 



Breeding range. — McCown's longspur breeds from southern Alberta 

 (Calgary, Medicine Hat), southern Saskatchewan (Davidson), south- 

 western Manitoba (Whitewater Lake), and central northern North 

 Dakota (Cando) south to southeastern Wyoming (Laramie), north- 

 eastern Colorado (Pawnee Buttes), northwestern Nebraska (Sioux 

 County), and central North Dakota (Fort Lincoln); formerly east to 

 southwestern Minnesota (Pipestone County). 



Winter range. — Winters from central Arizona (Camp Verde), south- 

 western, central, and northeastern Colorado (Durango, Fort Morgan), 

 west-central Kansas (Hays), and central Oklahoma (Cleveland County) 

 south to northeastern Sonora (Pozo de Luis), Chihuahua, northern 

 Durango (Villa Ocampo), and southern Texas (Rio Grande City, 

 Corpus Christi, Galveston). 



Casual records.— Casual in southern British Columbia (Chilliwack) , 

 Oregon (Malheur National Wildlife Refuge), Idaho (Birch Creek), 

 northern Alberta (20 miles south of Athabaska Landing), and Illinois 

 (Champaign). 



Migration. — Early dates of spring arrival are : Wyoming — Cheyenne, 

 March 12 (average of 9 years, April 14); Laramie, April 6. 



