FINCHES 



ti(in>^ they present a i>rotty sight, and have not 

 a displeasing stridulent sound, from mingHng of 

 the weak chirrups from so many throats." 



John Burroughs rises to his best literature as 

 he speaks of this bird [Far and N'car). "The 

 only one of our winter birds that really seems 

 a part of the winter, that seems to be born of 

 the whirling snow, and to be happiest when 

 storms drive thickest and coldest, is the Snow 

 Bunting, the real snowbird, with phnnage copied 

 from the fields where the drifts hide all but the 

 tops of the tallest weeds, large spaces of pure 

 white touched here and there with black and 

 gray and brown. Its twittering call and chirrup 

 coming out of the white obscurity is the sweetest 

 and happiest of all winter bird sounds. Tt is 

 like the laughter of children. The fox-hunter 

 hears it on the snowv hills, the farmer hears it 

 when he goes to fodder his cattle from the dis- 

 tant stack, the country schoolboy hears it as he 

 breaks his way through the drifts toward the 

 school. It is ever a voice of good cheer and 

 contentment." 



In the Far \orth are found two other members 



of this branch of the h'inch family. They never 

 come as far south as the United States. The 

 Pribilof Snow Hunting, or Aleutian Snowfiake 

 [Plectrophcnax nk'alis towusciidi ) is similar to 

 the better known Snow Hunting but decidedly 

 larger with a relatively longer bill. As his name 

 indicates his home is among the Aleutian Islands ; 

 he is also found on other islands of that region 

 and along the Siberian coast of Bering Sea. 

 McKay's Snow Bunting or Snowflake (Plec- 

 trophcnax hypcrborcns) is similar to the Pribilof 

 Snow Bunting, but with much more white, the 

 back and shoulders of the adult male being en- 

 tirely white. This Snow Bunting breeds on 

 Hall Island and St. Matthew's Island, north- 

 central part of Bering Sea ; in the winter it mi- 

 grates to the western portion of the .-Maskan 

 mainland. L. Nei.sox Xichols. 



The Snow Bunting feeds almost exclusively 

 from the ground : the reports of his feeding in 

 trees are rare. Small seeds — pigweed, ragweed, 

 and all kinds of grass — are his chief foods. 

 From Nebraska comes a statement that he always 

 eats locusts' eggs when thev are obtainable. 



LAPLAND LONGSPUR 



Calcarius lapponicus lapponicus ( Linnccux) 



A. O. U. Number jjf. 



Other Name. — Common Longspur. 



General Description. — Length 7'4 inches. L'p[)er 

 parts, light brownish, streaked with blackish ; under 

 parts, white. Bill, small; wings, long and [lointed ; tail, 

 more than '■'j length of wing, anri double rounded; 

 hind claw, long and slender. 



Color. — Adult M.\le in Summer: Head and chest, 

 deep black, relieved by a broad white or buffy stripe 

 behind eye, continued downward (vertically) behind 

 ear-coverts and then backward along sides of chest; 

 sides, broadly streaked or striped with black ; rest of 

 under parts, white; hindneck, deep chestnut-rufous; rest 

 of upper parts, light brownish, broadly streaked with 

 blackish ; lesser wing-coverts, grayish, featliers black in 

 center. Adult M.«lLE in Winter: Black of head con- 

 fined to crown, posterior and lower border of ear- 

 coverts, lower part of throat, and patch on chest, all 

 more or less obscured by whitish or pale brownish tips 

 to feathers; sides of head (including lores and greater 

 part of ear-coverts), mostly dull light brownish; rufous 

 on hindneck also similarly obscured. Adult Fem.^le in 

 Summer: Much like the winter male, but markings 



more sharply defined, black areas of chest, etc., more 

 restricted and still more broken, hindneck streaked with 

 blackish and size smaller. Adult Female in Winter: 

 Similar to summer plnma.gc, but browner and less 

 sharply streaked above, hindneck often without trace 

 of rufous, lower parts dull brownish-white, and dusky 

 markings very indistinct. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : On ground or in tussock 

 of grass; constructed of fine dried grass and moss; 

 lined with feathers or fur shed from the winter coats 

 of the arctic fox. Eggs: 3 to 6, dull white specked 

 and spotted and clouded witli umber-brown so thickly 

 as almost to obscure the ground color. 



Distribution. — Breeding in arctic and subarctic dis- 

 tricts of Europe, northeastern North America, including 

 Greenland, and for an undetermined distance west- 

 ward to at least the more western portions of Siberia; 

 in North America migrating south in winter (more or 

 less irregularly) to Virginia, South Carolina, Ken- 

 tucky, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and even to Texas; 

 west during migration to eastern portion of Great 

 Plains (Manitoba to Texas). 



The general characteristics of the I.ongsjnir 

 family are the small acutely conical bill, which is 

 deeper at the base than it is wide; exposed nos- 

 trils; long, pointed wing; tail more than half 

 hidden by the pointed upper coverts ; and a slen- 



der and nearly straight hind claw about the 

 length of the toe. There are three species, difTer- 

 ing considerably in details of form. The type 

 species is the Lapland. .Smith's Longspur, or the 

 Painted Longspur (Calcarius f^icfii.';). found on 



