268 The Alaska Longspur 



the feathers are gradually molted and replaced, the change extending 

 slowly toward the bill. 



In winter and early spring Alaska Longspurs are very common in the 

 open country along the Canadian boundary and throughout North Dakota 

 and Montana, and thence west to Oregon and Washington. A vivid idea 

 of the vast number of these birds in the aggregate is given by Dr. T. S. 

 Roberts, in The Auk for 1907, in his account of the enormous number 

 which perished during a storm in northwestern Iowa and southwestern 

 Minnesota on the nights of March 13 and 14, 1904. In two square miles 

 of icy surface on two small lakes, Dr. Roberts thinks nearly a million birds 



lay dead, and he estimates that in the vicinity prob- 

 Pens ing a ^j y a m ji]j on anc j a half birds perished that night. 



These birds had been caught in a storm of wet snow 

 while migrating and, as the total area over which their bodies lay scat- 

 tered exceeded 1,500 square miles, it is evident that the number killed 

 must have been many millions. Such catastronhies must occasionally 

 overtake birds like these, which live on open shelterless plains and exist 

 so closely on the borders of winter. The wide extent of their breeding 

 and wintering grounds, however, insures them against any serious danger 

 to the species from local causes, no matter how destructive these may be. 



Classification and Distribution 



The Alaska Longspur belongs to the Order Passcrcs, Family Fringillida and 

 Genus Calcarius. Its scientific name is Calcarius lapponicus alascensis. It ranges 

 and breeds throughout Northwestern America from the Mackenzie River westward 

 to the islands in Bering Sea, and winters among the foothills of the eastern slope 

 of the Rocky Mountains from Oregon to southern Colorado. 



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