FRINaiLLIDJ5 — THE FINCHES. 521 



Mr. H. E. Dresser, in his paper on tlie birds of Southern Texas, mentions 

 finding the Chestnut-collared Bunting in flocks early in the spring, on the 

 prairies near San Antonio, but it was not a common bird there. 



Dr. Woodhouse found this species quite rare in the Indian Territory, where 

 he Avas only able to secure a single specimen. 



Captain Blakiston met with this species on the Saskatchewan Plains on 

 the 15th of May, 1858, — a higher range than has been noticed by any one 

 else. 



Dr. Heermann, while on a trip to the Eocky Mountains in 1843, met with 

 this species in small flocks and pairs, scattered over the prairies of the Platte 

 Elver, and was so fortunate as to meet with one of its nests. It was built 

 on the ground, and was made of an interweaving of fine grasses and lined 

 with hair. He describes the eggs, which were four in number, as having a 

 white ground, with black lines at the larger end, and a few faint blotclies of 

 a neutral tint scattered over their whole surface. 



This description does not quite correspond with the eggs collected by Mr. 

 Audubon on the Upper Missouri. These liave a clay-colored ground with the 

 slightest possible tinge of green, and are marked witli fine dots of purplish- 

 brown, and larger markings, blotches, and short lines of dark brown. They 

 measure .70 by .55 of an inch, and have a strong resemblance to the eggs of 

 both P. pidus and P. maccowni. 



Five eggs of this species, obtained at Fort Hays, Kansas, June 1, 1871, by 

 Mr. J. A. Allen, measure .75 of an inch in length by .58 in breadth. They 

 are small in proportion to the bird, and are somewhat pointed at one end. 

 Their ground is a gray or grayish-white shade of stone-color, and this is 

 somewhat sparingly marked with blotches of dark brown, almost black, and 

 lighter markings of purplish-brown. The nest was placed on the ground, and 

 was composed altogether of fine stems of grasses. 



Plectrophanes ornatus, var. melanomus, Baird. 



BLACK-SHOULDERED LONGSPUR. 



Plectrophanes melanomus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 4o6, pi. Ixxiv, f. 2. — HEEI;.^rAX^'■, 

 X, c, 13. 



Sp. Char. Bill j^ellowish, dark brown along the culmen. ^/nle. Crown, a short stripe 

 behind the eye, and a short crescent behind the ear-coverts, entire breast as far back as 

 the thighs, and the lesser wing-coverts, black. The black on the breast margined with 

 dark cinnamon. Sides of head, chin, throat, and region beliind the black of the belly, 

 white. A broad half-collar of dark cinnamon-brown on the back of the neck. Tail- 

 feathers mostly white ; the innermost tipped with dark brown ; the white ending in an 

 acute angle. Length, 5.30; wing, 3.40; tail, 2.60. (No. G,290.) 



Hab. Eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, on the table-lands, north to 

 Upper Missouri. Orizaba (Sclater, I860, 251); San Antonio, Texas, spring (Drksskr, 

 Ibis, 1865, 486); Fort Whipple, Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 84); Vera Cruz, 

 plateau, breeding (Sumichrast, I, 551). 

 66 



