I02 THE WESTERN LARK SP^^ROW. 



C'lidi.ilis Counties. Heiulire rc|x'rtL'(l tlicm irmn Caini) Ilariicv in ciistern 

 Orcj^on. and Hn><>ks says lliey arc coninion nn Sunias I'rairie. 1'. C: but we 

 have only one authentic record lor tliis State, tliat of a stra>j>jler taken near 

 Seattle in (\-tol>er, 1907. These I^>nf,'S])urs alxiund in Alaska durin^f tlie nest- 

 ing season, hut it would ai>])ear that the mountain barriers hahituailv deflect 

 their autumnal llight to the eastward, and that llie few which reach us straggle 

 down the coast. 



Those who have seen b>wa prairies give up these birds by .scores and 

 hundreds every few rods, have Inren able to form some conception of their vast 

 numl)ers. but it remained for the storm of March 13-14. 1904. to reveal the 

 real order of magnitude of their abundance. An observer detailed by the 

 Minnesota State Xatural History Survey estimates that a million and a half 

 of these "La])land" I^ongspurs |)erished in and aljout the village of W'orthing- 

 lon alone: and he foinid that this destruction, tho not elsewhere so intense, 

 e.xtenflcd over an area of fifteen hundred square miles. 



In s|)ite of such bulTetings of fortune, those birds which do reach .\laska 

 bring a mighty cheer with them to the solitudes. As Nelson says: "When 

 they arrive early in May the ground it still largely covered with snow with the 

 exception of grassy siK>ts along .southern exposures and the more favorably 

 situated ])ortions of the tundra, and here may l)e found these birds in all the 

 Ijeauty of their elegant summer dress. The males, as if conscious of their 

 handsome plumage, choose the tops of the only breaks in the monotonous level, 

 which are small rounded knolls and tus.siKks. The male utters its song as it 

 flies upward from one of these knolls and when it reaches the height of ten or 

 fifteen yards, it e.xtcnds the points of its wings upwards, forming a large 

 V-sha])ed figure, and floats gently to the ground, uttering, as it slowly sinks, 

 its lif|uid tones, which fall in tinkling succession upf>n the ear. and are ]>erhaps 

 the sweetest ni>tes that one hears during the entire spring-time in these regions. 

 It is an cxrpiisite jingling meliKly. having much less ]>ower than that of the 

 Bolnilink. but with the same general character, and. tho shorter, it has even 

 more meloily than the song ni that well known bird." 



No. 3H. 



WESTERN LARK SPARROW. 



.\. < >. I'. Xo. 552a. Chondestes Kcammacus stri^atus 1 .^ wains.). 



Synonyms. — Oi Aii.-ni:.\n. \\i;sii:kn I..m<k I**iNt h. 



Description. — .Idiilt: Head varii(,':Ui<l. l)lack. white, and chestinit ; lateral 

 head-stripc'i black in fmiu. chestnut behind : .inrictilars chestnut. iKinndcd by rictal 

 and post-orbital black stripes: narrow loral. and broader subnialar black stripes: 

 malar, superciliary, and median stripes white, the two latter becoming InifTy 



