396 



General N'otes. \q^ 



The Barra specimens were captured on the 8th of October, 1896, on the 

 loth of November, i8qS, and on the 13th of October, 1900. Their wing 

 measurements range from 3.02 to 3.08 ins. — Wm. Eagle Clarke, Mu- 

 seum of Scietice and Art, Edinburgh. 



The Migratory Movements of the Lapland Longspurs in North Amer- 

 ica. — The winter migratory movements of tlie Lapland Longspur {Cal- 

 carius lapponictis) have been little understood by me, or by those persons 

 whom I have consulted. I have, to satisf}' myself, during the past 

 month gathered together all obtainable data for North America, and 

 have been thus able to explain their seemingly erratic movements, and 

 I present the results thinking they may interest others. 



The Lapland Longspur [Cahutrius lappo9iicus) and the Alaskan Long- 

 spur (C. /. alascensis) breed in North America approximately- north of 

 the 6oth parallel from Ungava (Nachvak) to Alaska, the subspecies being- 

 confined to the country west of the 120th meridian. They nest during 

 the months of June and July, reaching their breeding grounds in late 

 May. By the last of August (Aug. 20) they begin their southward 

 migration across southern Canada, occurring most abundantly in the 

 central portions of their route (Manitoba). This is true of both their 

 southward and northward journeys. They reach southern I>abrador, 

 Manitoba, and British Columbia in September, occurring in these locali- 

 ties apparently only as fall and spring migrants. After entering the 

 United States the ranks of Calcarius lapponicus become more crowded 

 into the central States as the eastern and western limits of their migra- 

 tory route narrow, deteri-nined by the Alleghany and Rocky mountains. 

 Stragglers only reach the Atlantic coast south of Ipswich, Massachusetts, 

 and there are no records for the Alaskan Longspur south of Canada on 

 the Pacific coast, the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountains proving an 

 effectual barrier, as this subspecies is not recorded from California to 

 my knowledge but seems to migrate down between the Rocky and the 

 last named mountains through the Great Basin, and wanders dui-ing the 

 winter to Colorado and western Kansas. Along the 47th parallel (Mon- 

 tana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan) the Lapland 

 Longspur is a late September and October niigrant, while to the south 

 of the 40th parallel it occurs as a winter resident in large numbers as 

 far south as the 37th parallel, occurring even occasionally in northern 

 Texas (Gainsville). The wedge shape of the southern migration between 

 the east and west n-iountain ranges explains why the Longspurs do not 

 occur regularly all along the southern Pacific coast and on the Atlantic 

 coast south of Massachusetts : a puzzle in the latter case, as formerly 

 viewed from my local- standpoint of Massachusetts alone. 



The spring northward migration is exactly the reverse of the south- 

 ward fall movement, the birds reaching the 47th parallel in late Mai-ch, 

 April and even May, and the 55th parallel in May. 



