638 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 2 



rivers from southwestern Utah (St. George) to northeastern Baja 

 California and northwestern Sonora, and in the Salton Sea Basin of 

 southeastern California (west to Whitewater). 



Egg dates. — Arizona: 92 records, February 28 to September 4; 

 46 records, AprU 1 to May 31. 



CALAMOSPIZA MELANOCORYS Stejneger 



Lark Bunting 



PLATES 37 AND 38 



Contributed by Henry E. Baumgarten 



Habits 



The lark bunting was first reported by Townsend who, in the com- 

 pany of Nuttall, discovered it on May 24, 1837, shortly after crossing 

 the north branch of the Platte Kiver in central Nebraska. Nuttall 

 regarded the lark bunting as a close relative of the bobolink and 

 assigned it to the same genus. Indeed, there is considerable resem- 

 blance between the two birds in general appearance and behavior, 

 and many less experienced observers in some parts of the lark bunting's 

 breeding range call it "bobolink." Other names that have been used 

 to describe this species are: white winged blackbird, white-winged 

 bunting, and buffalo-bird. 



Roberts (1936) has expanded Coues's (1874) earlier observations 

 of the specialized character of the lark bunting, "pointing out that in 

 some ways it is like a Lark, has the bUl of a Grosbeak, the seasonal 

 plumage changes of the Bobolink, notes and manner of singing like 

 the Yellow-breasted Chat, gregarious habits of the Blackbirds," and 

 a nest and eggs "almost indistinguishable from those of the Dickcissel, 

 with which bird it is somewhat akin in its nomadic habits." These 

 characteristics do render the lark bunting unique and endear it to 

 those with whom it spends the late spring and summer. 



The lark bunting breeds in Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones 

 from southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern 

 Manitoba, south to northwestern Texas and New Mexico, east to 

 Nebraska and western Minnesota. Unfortunately during the past 

 50 years the lark bunting has all but abandoned the eastern and north- 

 eastern portions of its breeding range. Thus, Roberts (1936) wrote 

 that "it was a keen disappointment to the bird-students of the state 

 that the breaking up of the native prairie caused it to leave after it had 

 become well established for so many years over a wide area and was 

 apparently on the way toward occupying all the prairie region of 

 Minnesota." Similarly, William Youngworth (MS.) has concluded 

 "after nearly 40 years of field work in the area under discussion, that 



