BIRDS OF NORTH DAKOTA 23 



168 — 527a. Hoary Redpoll. Acaiitbis honieioannii exilipes. 



Rare winter visitant. Usually found with flocks of the common Redpoll. 



169 — 528. Kedpoll. Acautkis liuaria. 



Common winter visitant and migrant in early spring and late fall. 



170—529. Goldfinch. Spinas tristis. 



Tolerably common. Breeds in Turtle Mountains, migratory prairie regions. 



171 — 534. Snowflake. Plectrophenax nivalis. 



Abundant migrant. Winter resident some years. Usually comes from 

 north early in October, going north in spring. Last seen fore part of May. 



172 — 536. Lapland Longspun Calcarius laponicus. 



Abundant migrant. Arriving from the south from the 12th of March on, 

 they are seen in flocks of hundreds as soon as the snow is all gone. They 

 feed on the newly seeded fields, picking up the uncovered grains of wheat, 

 weed seeds, and insects. Called by some farmers "wheat birds." They are 

 thought by some to do great damage, and may have done so in the days of 

 the broadcast seeder. An examination of the crop and gizzards of these show 

 an enormous number of weed seeds and small insects, showing that they 

 ■are beneficial rather than harmful in any way. Returning from the north 

 in September, they are commonly seen till about November 1. 



173 — 537. Smith's Longspur. Calcarius pictns. 



Common migrant. This species seems of a more retiring nature than 

 the others of this genus. They are seldom seen unless flushed from the 

 stubble they usually feed in. Not often seen on the grass of the prairies. 

 Not seen at all in the wooded sections. 



174 — 538. Chestnut collared Longspur. Calcarus omatns. 



Abundant summer resident. This most ubiquitous of our small birds is 

 the most conspicuous of the ground-nesting species. The males spend much 

 of their time in the air near the nesting site, singing as they soar at some 

 height from the ground their pleasing and cheerful song, only heard during 

 the nesting season. They come late in the spring and stay until well along 

 in October. 



175 — 539. McCown's Longspun Rhynchophanes mocownii. 



Tolerably common summer resident. Nests usually found in growing 

 grain, though they commence nesting before same is hardly up. Sometimes 

 called butterfly birds from their habit of rising from the ground, and after 

 their song is finished coming down with wings set much as a butterfly djaes. 

 (This species has become more and more rare as the country has settled until 

 now it is rarely seen 1910.) 



176 — 540. Vesper Sparrow. Pooecetes graniineus. 



Fairly common. Nests around the towns, farm buildings, but seldom or 

 ever on the open prairie. 



177 — 540a. Western Vesper Sparrow. Pooecetes graniineus confinis. 



Intermingling with the true Vesper, if not confounded at times with the 

 same. It needs the birds in hand to separate one from the other. 



178 — 542a. Savanna Sparrow. Animodramus sandwichensis savanna. 



Common summer resident, nesting in numbers in all suitable localities. 



179 — 545. Baird's Sparrow. Animodramus bairdii. 



Common summer resident nesting in suitable places, often times several 

 pairs in the same meadow. 



180 — 546a. Western Grasshopper Sparrow. Amniodramus savannarum (per- 

 pallidus.) 



Not common. Probably breeds as E. S. Bryant gives it as a common 

 breeder in Freshwater Lake. 



