CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR 1637 



would sweep over the house and on down to the grass at the edge of 

 the alkali lake, whence they straggled out at daybreak." 



The birds pass northward through western Texas and Oklahoma, 

 New Mexico, and eastern Arizona, across Colorado and Kansas, and 

 arrive on their breeding grounds about the second week of April. 

 R. D. Harris (1944) describes their arrival at Winnipeg, Manitoba: 

 "On the first day of migration, no more than a single individual was 

 usually noted, but afterward 10 or 12 were counted in a day. They 

 arrived principally during the forenoon, either singly or in groups of 

 two or three." 



Territory. — We found that the chestnut-collared longspur usually 

 defends a nesting territory of between 1 and 2 acres of prairie, though 

 two of our pairs occupied territories of almost 10 acres of rather un- 

 satisfactory habitat at the margin of the nesting area. As with other 

 territorial species, the more the pairs are crowded together and the 

 smaller the individual territories, the more defensive behavior is to 

 be seen. 



An important aspect of territorial defense consists of advertising by 

 singing from conspicuous perches. Rival males spent many hours 

 singing at each other from weed clumps, small shrubs, boulders, fences, 

 or farm refuse. Our wire nest markers were favored perches, and one 

 longspur even sang from the top of the car when it was parked near 

 the nest. The birds rarely sang from the transmission line that crossed 

 our study area; possibly its 20-foot poles were too high to suit their 

 purposes. The birds stand out so strikingly against the pale prairie 

 grass when singing that I believe the black breast is almost as impor- 

 tant as the song in advertising territorial occupancy. 



L. J. Moriarty writes in a letter of his observations of the species 

 in eastern South Dakota: 



The birds nearly always nest on the higher areas in our rolling short-grass lands. 

 Seldom do I find them in hay land as they prefer open places with poor soils and 

 short-spaced vegetation. Each male appears to have what I call his "singing rock" 

 upon which he sits, flies up from to sing or to defend his territory and returns to 

 constantly. These rocks are usually the largest ones in each pair's territory, and 

 are soon marked by a ring of droppings around the highest peak. Occasionally 

 when no rock is available, a weed or a post will be substituted. The nest is usually 

 within 25 feet of the singing rock. Each pair's territory appears to be about 100 

 yards across. Of the many nests I have found, none have been closer together 

 than 100 yards. 



In Saskatchewan we observed chases of two types. The commoner 

 occurs when a neighboring bird flies over an occupied territory. The 

 male, and sometimes the female as well, take wing and follow him at a 

 distance of a few feet. The chase usually continues over at least one 

 more territory, from which another male will rise to join the chase. 

 It is common to see three to five longspurs ending round and round 



