rKINfllLLID.E — THE FINCHES. (]3 



the whnlo tiock would go off together, tittering a low and melodious whistle. 

 In ]\liiy iind June sovenil were still about near Howard's Itanelio, and on his 

 return inmi Houston, in June, he sueeeeded in shooting one in its full sum- 

 mer jilumnge, when its speeific name is peeuliarly appropriate, lie does not, 

 however, think that, as a general thing, any of them remain about San An- 

 tonio to breed. 



They breed in great nundjers on the plains of Wyoming Territory, and 

 probaldy also in Colorado, Montiina, and Dakota. The Smithsonian collec- 

 tion eml traces specimens olitained in July from the Yellowstone, from Platte 

 Ifiver, Polo Creek, the Ulaek Hills, and Uridger's Pass, indicating that they 

 breed in these localities ; also specimens from Te.xas, Xew Mexico, Sonora, 

 and E.spia, in jMexico, but none from California. 



Dr. Kennerly, who met with these birds both in Sonora and at Espia, on 

 the Mexican Boundary Survey, states that he observed them in the valley 

 of the liver early in the morning, in very large flocks. During the greater 

 part of the day they feed on the hills among the bushes. When on the wing 

 they keep very close together, so that a single dischai'ge of shot would some- 

 times bring down twenty or thirty. Mr. J. H. Clark, on the same survey, 

 also states that he sometimes found them occurring in flocks of hundreds. 

 The greatest numbers were seen near Presidio del Norte. Great varieties of 

 plumage were observed in the same flock. Tiie food seemed to be seeds 

 almost exclusively. They were very simultaneous in all their movements. 

 Stragglers were never observed remaining behind al'ter the tlock had started. 

 They are, he states, the most absolutely gregarious birds he has ever met 

 with. 



Dr. Cones, who regarded this bird as one highly characteristic of the priai- 

 rie finina, writes me tliat he met witii it in great nundters in Kansas, soon 

 after leaving Fort IJiley, and .saw it every day tmtil he reached the Katon 

 Mountains in Nt-w Mexico. " For two or three days, in fact, from Fort 

 Lnrned to the mountains," he writes, " I scarcely saw anything else. This 

 was the first week in June, and mot:; of the birds seemed to U' paired and 

 nesting, though occasionally a dozen or more were seen together, Hocking 

 like the Plackbirds that they strongly recall. Tliey were in full song, and 

 proved delightful vocalists. Sometimes they warble from some spray or low 

 bush offering a stand a little above the level flower-beds of the prairie, but 

 oftener they mount straight up, hovering high in tiie air on tremulous wings, 

 ]iouring forth tiu'ir melodious strains until, .seemingly exhausted, they sink 

 back to the ground. At such times it is interesting to watch two ri\al males, 

 each straining every nerve to mount higher than the other, and sing more 

 acce]ttably to its mate hidden in the verdiu'e below. This habit of rising on 

 the wing to sing, so famed in tlie case of tiie Skylark, seems not confined to 

 l)articular species, but to be a forced practice of a nundicr of diireront birds 

 residing in ojmn level regions, that do not allord the elevated ]ierehes usually 

 chosen by woodland songsters for their performances. The ordinary flight 



