OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 233 



April. Elsewhere throughout the country they are frequently 

 seen by the roadsides examining the tall weeds which appear in 

 waste places above the snow, or running in the road tracks 

 searching hurriedly for their scanty fare. They are exceedingly 

 restless, never remaining long in one place, and even when 

 feeding the flock will often arise without apparent cause of 

 alarm and go off as if never to return, but not unfrequently 

 they come swirling back and alight on the spot from which 

 they have just arisen. There are one or two instances on 

 record of their nests and eggs having been found among the 

 highest mountain peaks in Massachusetts, but their breeding 

 ground is within the Arctic circle, from which they descend 

 over the northern portions of both continents, enlivening many 

 a dreary region with their sprightly presence during the dull 

 days of winter, till reminded by the lengthening days and rising 

 temperature to return again to their northern home. 



Genus CALCARIUS Bechstein. 



211. CALCARIUS LAPPONICUS (Linn.). 53(5. 



!Lapla.nd Longspur. 



Bill moderate, unruffed, but with a little tuft of feathers at the base of 

 the rictus ; hind claw straightish, with its digit longer than the middle toe 

 and claw. Adult male, whole head and throat jet black, bordered with 

 buffy or whitish, which torms a postocular line, separating the black of the 

 crown from that of the sides of the head ; a broad chestnut cervical collar ; 

 upper parts in general, blackish, streaked with buffy or whitish that edges all 

 the feathers ; below, whitish, the breast and sides black streaked ; wings, 

 dusky, the greater coverts and inner secondaries edged with dull bay ; tail, 

 dusky, with an oblique white area on the outer feathers ; bill, yellowish, 

 tipped with black ; legs and feet, black. Winter males show less black on the 

 head, and the cervical chestnut duller ; the female and young have no con- 

 tinuous black on the head, and the crown is streaked like the back, and there 

 are traces of the cervical collar. Length, 6-6^; wing, 3^-3^ ; tail, 2j-2f. 



Hab. Northern portions of the Northern Hemisphere, breeding far 

 north ; in North America south in winter to the Northern United States, 

 irregularly to the Middle States, accidentally to South Carolina and abundantly 

 in the interior to Kansas and Colorado. 



Nest, like that of the Snowflake. 



Eggs, 4 to 5 ; greenish-grey, which color is nearl}' obscured by a heavy 

 mottling of chocolate-brown. 



