CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR 1639 



mounted, and circled to the front. There he assumed an exaggerated 

 "female precopulatory posture," in which he raised his closed tail 

 as high as possible until his chest almost touched the ground, bent his 

 head back on his shoulders with bill pointing straight up, and the 

 wings projecting back and down. In this remarkable posture he 

 rocked slowly from side to side several times. He then pecked at the 

 dummy's head, rump, and cloacal area as if in annoyance, and re- 

 peated the display. Possibly this behavior is elicited only when 

 resistance is met, for I saw one pair copulate a dozen times without 

 performing any such preliminary display. 



In the matings I witnessed the female took the initiative. Typically 

 she flies over and lands beside the singing male, lifts her tail straight 

 up and tilts her head backward with bill pointing up and wings held 

 low and quivering. The male moimts for a few seconds, dismounts, 

 and stands beside her with his chestnut collar erect and bulging out 

 from the rest of his plumage. The female holds the copulatory 

 position for two or three seconds after the male dismounts, then 

 assuming normal posture, fluffs out her feathers momentarily and 

 assumes normal posture again. I once saw a female hold a piece of 

 grass in her bill during coition. 



The female's reaction to a mounted female placed near her nest was 

 to attack it fiercely, pecking at the head and throat. This suggests 

 that the female drives off rival or trespassing females. I have found 

 no reports of polygamy in the literature, nor did we find any indica- 

 tion of it in the field. 



Nesting. — The chestnut-collared longspur nests typically in un- 

 cultivated grasslands. At Winnipeg, Manitoba, R. D. Harris (1944) 

 describes its favored habitat as consisting of "* * * prairie, its flatness 

 relieved by occasional low ridges and shallow sloughs. The dominant 

 vegetation was composed of grasses of the following species: Panicum 

 virgatum, Poa arida, Agrostis hyemalis, and Agropyron tenerum. 

 Wolfberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis) in straggling patches, prairie 

 sage (Artemisia gnaphalodes) , goldenrod (Solidago canadensis and S. 

 hispida), and gum-weed (Grindelia squarrosa) were also present." 



In Montana, A. Dawes DuBois (1935) writes: "The Chestnut- 

 collared Longspurs prefer to nest in the low and slightly moist situa- 

 tions where the thicker and taller grasses afford adequate conceal- 

 ment. If the meadow is wet or flooded the nests are placed on higher 

 ground but are often near the moist margins. * * * twelve nests out 

 of eighteen were in low places. However, one nest was high and dry 

 on a knoll of the rolling prairie, one was on sloping land near a coulee, 

 one in a fence border of native sod between wheat fields, and one was 

 in a patch of grass on a dead-furrow left by the breaking plows, in 



