522 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



As already stated, this bird is very similar to P. ornatvs. It appears to 

 be a very little larger, or, at any rate, with considerably longer wings. 

 The bill, however, is shorter and stouter; the hind claw decidedly longer. 

 The chestnut of the back of the neck is darker. The white on the outer 

 web of the tertiaries and secondaries is much purer and wider. The 

 rufous margins of the pectoral feathers we have never seen in P. ornatus. 

 The most striking peculiarity, howeVer, is in having the shoulders black, 

 instead of brown like the rest of the wing-feathers, edged with paler. Both 

 have the white posterior row of lesser wing-coverts. 



An immature male (6,291) has the black of the head mixed with brown, 

 and a maxillary series of spots on each side of the throat. A female has a 

 similar series of spots ; the under parts generally being brownish-white, the 

 shafts across the breast and along the sides streaked with brown, tlie con- 

 cealed portions of the feathers light brown, fading out to the whitish exterior. 

 There is no black on the shoulder, nor chestnut on the naj^e. 



Fully mature specimens of this l)ird and of ornatus are so rare in collec- 

 tions as to render it difficult to decide positively as to their true relationship. 

 It is by no means impossible that tliey merely represent different conditions 

 of plumage of one species, but for tlie present, at least, we prefer to con- 

 sider them as distinct. The P. melanomus is resident on the table-lands of 

 Mexico. 



Habits. Of the habits and general history of this species, very little 

 is known. Its close resemblance to P. ornatus is suggestive of its probably 

 equally close similarity in nesting, eggs, and manner of feeding. Specimens 

 have been received from JNIexico, from Fort Thorn, from New Mexico, Pole 

 Creek, and the Black Hills. From the last-named places they were obtained 

 in August and September. 



Dr. Heermann, in his Eeport on the birds observed in Lieutenant Parke's 

 route near the 32d parallel, mentions having met with these birds, whicli 

 he calls the Black-shouldered Longspur, at a large prairie-dog village some 

 miles west of Puerto del Dado. They were in flocks, and were associated 

 with P. maccowni. From that point to the Eio Grande he found both of 

 these species abundant wherever they struck isolated water-holes, these being 

 the only places for miles around where drink can be procured. When shot 

 at, they rise as if to go away, but are forced to return, after describing a few 

 curves, to the only spot where they can procure their necessary drink. They 

 may thus be killed in great numbers. Dr. Heermann states that he has seen 

 i'rom a hundred to a hundred and fifty thus brought down in four or five 

 discharges of a gun. 



Mr. Dresser states that on the 4th of April a small flock of what was 

 at first supposed to be the P. ornatus Avas noticed near the town of San 

 Antonio. They were pursued, and found on the banks of the San Pedro. 

 They were not very shy, and specimens were procured whicli proved to be 

 of this species. This is the only time that they have been observed in 



