234 FRINGILLID^E I FINCHES. 



CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR. 

 CENTROPHANES ORNATUS (Towns.) Cab. 



Chars. " Adult < : A chestnut cervical collar, as in lapponicus, 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 show 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." (Coues.) 



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. 



