THE LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 



53 



General Range. — Northern portions of the northern hemisphere, breeding 

 far north ; in America south in winter to the northern United States, abundantly 

 in the interior, to Kansas and Colorado, irregularly to the Middle States. 



Range in Ohio. — A frequent but irregular winter visitor, more common in 

 northern portion of state ; casual south. 



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 pellets 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 off, 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 

 off, 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' 

 beads, 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, chal- 

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



According to Mr. E. W. Nelson, 1 who found this species breeding abun- 

 dantly on the grassy flats near St. Michaels, Alaska, the birds arrive there 

 early in May, while the ground is still largely covered with snow, and by the 

 middle of that month they are common. "The males, as if conscious of their 

 handsome plumage, choose the tops of the only breaks in the monoti inous 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, 



1 Quoted by Prof. Butler. ••Birds of Indiana." p. 53'- 



