234 FRINGILLID^ : FINCHES. 



CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR. 



Centrophanes ornatus {Towns.) Cab. 



Chars. "Adult ^■. A chestnut cervical collar, as in lapponictis, and 

 upper parts streaked much as in that species, but grayer ; nearly 

 all the under parts continuously black, the throat yellowish ; lower 

 belly and crissum only whitish ; in high plumage the black of 

 the under parts is more or less mixed with intense ferrugineous, 

 and sometimes this rich sienna color becomes continuous ; crown 

 and sides of head black, interrupted with white auricular and 

 postocular stripes, and in high plumage with a white occipital 

 spot ; lesser wing-coverts black, or brownish-black ; outer tail- 

 feathers mostly or entirely white, and all the rest largely white 

 from the base — a character that distinguishes the species in any 

 plumage from the preceding ; legs not black. 9 : With or with-, 

 out traces of the cervical collar; crown exactly like the back; 

 generally no black on head or under parts ; below, whitish, with 

 slight dusky maxillary and pectoral streaks, and sometimes the 

 whole breast black, edged with grayish. Immature males have 

 the lesser wing-coverts like the back ; but they sliow the black 

 of the breast, veiled with gray tips of the feathers, long before any 

 black appears on the head. Length, 5.50-6.00 ; wing, 3.00-3.30 ; 

 tail, 2.00-2.30." — iCoues) 



A western species, whose occurrence in New Eng- 

 land is purely accidental. Only one such instance is 

 known, that of a specimen shot in Magnolia, near 

 Gloucester, Mass., July 28, 1876, by Mr. C. W. Town- 

 send. (See Brewer, Bull. Nutt. Club, ii, 1877, p. 

 78; Pr. Bost. Soc, xix, 1878, p. 239; Allen, Bull. 

 Essex Inst., x, 1878, p. 16.) There is consequently 

 no occasion to enter upon the history of this stran- 

 ger, so unexpectedly and unaccountably borne to us 

 from the boundless prairies of the Missouri or of the 

 Saskatchewan. / 



