BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 307 



may become so pressed with -'imminent incubation" as to mal^e 

 a necessity of "sweating it out", rearing a family with the 

 temperature, as occasionally, 103° in the shade. 



It is known to breed on the meadows along the shores of the 

 Arctic sea, in Alaska, where it arrives the second week of 

 May. It is also at home about Great Slave lake and McKenzie 

 river. At all these places its song is said to be eminently 

 beautiful. 



Dr. Coues tells us the eggs are rather pointed at the smaller 

 end; are dark colored with a thick mottling of chocolate- 

 brown through which the greenish-gray ground is scarcely 

 apparent. The nests are constructed of such matei'ials as are 

 readily obtained in the surrounding localities, namely — "mosses 

 and fine dried grasses, and lined with a few large feathers from 

 water- fowls, and are placed on the ground, under tussocks, in 

 grassy hammocks." As the name of this species naturally 

 suggests, the nail of the heel -toe is long and straight like a 

 spur, by which, if necessary, they could be readily identified 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



First quill longest; legs, head all around, and a semicircular 

 patch extending to the upper part of the breast, black; sides 

 of lower neck and under parts white, with black streaks on 

 the sides and spots on the side of the breast; a short, brown 

 ish- white streak back of the eye; a broad chestnut collar on 

 the back of the neck; rest of upper parts brownish -yellow 

 streaked with dark brown; outer tail feathers white, except on 

 the basal portion of the inner web. 



Length, 6.25; wing, 3.90; tail, 2.80. 



Habitat, northern portions of Northern Hemisphere. 



CALCARIUS PICTUS (Swainson). (537.) 



SMITH'S LONGSPUR. 



This Longspur has become more commonly observed of late, 

 but escaped my notice for several years after I resided here. 

 A few are obtained in autumn from year to year, ever since it 

 came under my observation. So far as I know, Mr. R. 

 Kennicott (who obtained it in Pembina in September, 1857) 

 was the first to discover it in what was then the Territory of 

 Minnesota. It is usually associated with the Lapland Long- 

 spurs, and the identity is only discovered when in hand. I 

 know no more of its habits. 



