Only now and then does one come upon a company of these hardy Lap- 

 landers, for their principal winter range is further west. They are to be found 

 industriously gleaning fallen weed-seed from the ground, pastures, stubble fields, 

 and waste places, or moving about in rather compact flocks through the air. 

 Not infrequently small numbers of them join a winter band of horned larks at 

 table in some choice feeding lot for cattle. At such times they move about freely 

 among the other birds, but are readily distinguished from them by their black 

 heads. 



If one would get the full effect of longspur's diagnostic mark, he should 

 creep on hands and knees over a rolling stubble-field on a chilly April day. It 

 will heighten the effect, not of the bird's color, but of the observer's boreal 

 sensations, if a sullen sky be added, and little ])ellets of sleet be dropped here 

 and there over the field. With eyes agog and glasses in readiness, you advance 

 cautiously. There is nothing but clods and stubble in sight. You feel sure that 

 there are birds all about you, for you saw them settle right there. At length, 

 a long way oflF, a single anxious black head is descried as it is thrust up into 

 view; but before you level on it, one, two, three, a dozen birds, are up and ofif, 

 who were within a rod of you. But by and by (it may be only after days) the 

 clods are differentiated, and some kindly resolve themselves into birds' heads, 

 at close range. Even the stubble is gracious, and gradually discloses skulking 

 females of obscure coloration, and who had only been known to you before as 

 voices and things in the air. The chirruping rattle of this bird has. somehow, 

 the power of calling out all the wild instinct of a man, the primitive, wind- 

 forged, and untamable Norse core, which lies ill at ease beneath this thin veneer 

 of spoon-fed civilization. It is like a rune from the elder Edda, challenging 

 the unspoiled spirit to arise and do battle with the fiery flying drake. 



According to Mr. E. W. Nelson, who found this species breeding abundantly 

 on the grassy flats near St. Michaels, Alaska, the birds arrive there early in May, 

 while the groimd is still largely covered with snow, and by the middle of that 

 month they are common. "The males, as if conscious of their handsome plum- 

 age, choose the tops of the only breaks in the monotonous level, which are small,, 

 rounded knolls and tussocks. The male utters its song as it flies upward from 

 one of these knolls, and when it reaches the height of ten or fifteen yards, it 

 extends the points of its wings upwards, forming a large V-shaped figure, and 

 floats gently to the ground, uttering as it slowly sinks, its liquid tones which fall 

 in twinkling succession upon the ear, and are, perhaps, the sweetest notes that 

 one hears during the entire springtime of these regions. It is an exquisite jingling 

 melody, having much less power than that of the bobolink, but with the same 

 general character, and, though shorter, it has even more melody than the song 

 of that well-known bird. The nests are placed on the drier portions of the flats ; 

 a hummock or tuft of grass is chosen, or perhaps a projecting bunch of dwarf 

 willow stems, and, as one comes directly upon it, the female usually flutters off 

 under one's feet." 



439 



