LAPLAND LONGSPUR. o9 



Nests and Eggs. Nests, placed on the ground, composed 

 of coarse grass and weeds, arranged in a shallow cup-like form 

 and often lined with feathers. Eggs, four or five in number, 

 oval in form, greenish in color, spotted and blotched, often so 

 thickly as to nearly obscure the ground color, with reddish 

 brown, sometimes occasionally some specimens will be marked 

 with zig-zag lines of dark brown. The thick, coarse markings 

 are characteristic. Dimensions, So by .90. 



General Habits. As a rule the Lapland Longspurs are 

 late autumnal migrants in New England, making their appear- 

 ance in Massachusetts about the first of November, generally 

 with the Shore Larks, but some specimens arrive earlier, 

 and are then unaccompanied by other species. I once ob- 

 tained a single straggler at Ipswich in April. They fre- 

 quent the barren, wind-swept hills of the coast, where they 

 may be found in company with the Shore Larks, running 

 nimbly about on the ground or searching for food along the 

 shore. 



Their stay with us is short, however, for by the first of De- 

 cember they are ofi" for the interior of the country where they 

 remain a comparatively short time, for by the first of March 

 they begin their journey northward, reaching their breeding 

 ground in the Arctic Regions in May. 



Thus in the Lapland Longspur we find an example of a 

 species, many of which perform circulatory migration, first 

 southward and eastward, then westward, then northward. The 

 eggs are laid late in May or June. 



Song. All the sounds given by the Lapland Longspur when 

 with us ig a sharp chirp of alarm. But in its summer home, 

 in the Arctic Regions, it has a fine song. This lay is given 



