COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 559 



€red them. I transcribe tbe account which he courteously furnished me 

 for iiublication in a different connection : — 



" The only nest we found was placed on the ground, and neatly formed 

 of fine dry grass. It was thinly arched over with the same material, 

 and being built in a tuft of rank grass, was most thoroughly concealed. 

 The bird would seem to be a close setter, as in this case the female 

 remained on the nest till I actually stepped over it, she brushing against 

 my feet as she went off". The eggs were five in number, rather long and 

 pointed, measuring about 0.90 by 0.60 inches; of a grayish-white color, 

 thickly and minutely flecked with darker, giving them a decidedly pur- 

 plish tint." 



It is a natural step from the nest and egg to the young. On the 2d 

 of August, 1873, while encamped at Turtle Mountain, I discovered a 

 brood of four newly fledged young birds, and captured the whole family, 

 the mother bird being also secured. The little ones were still unable to 

 fly, and would doubtless have escaped observation had it not been for 

 the anxiety of the parents, whose disturbed actions and querulous com- 

 plaints led to their detection. The nest was doubtless within a few 

 yards of my tent, but after careful and repeated search I had to give it 

 up. The young birds, upon gaining their first full plumage, differ mate- 

 rially from the adults. The upper parts have a richer cast, owing to 

 the buffy edgings of the feathers ; those of the back and scapulars have 

 also narrow, sharp, white tips, forming a set of semicircular markings. 

 The greater coverts and longest inner wing-feathers are likewise broadly 

 white-tipped. The buffy-brown patch formed by the ear-coverts is also 

 more conspicuous than it is in the adults. The under parts, excepting 

 the throat and middle of the belly, are strongly tinged with buft', while 

 the streaks on the breast and sides are large, numerous, and diffuse. 



A more exact description of the adults than is usually found in trea- 

 tises may be here reproduced. The sexes are alike, though the male 

 averages a little larger than the female. In addition to the dimension 

 given in the table which succeeds this article may be given those of 

 other parts. The tail is about 2^ inches; bill ^ an inch along the cul- 

 men, which is a little conca%^e toward the base. The bill as a whole is 

 weak, slender, compressed, and acute. Tarsus, measured in front, | to 

 y^^; hind toe and claw f to 1, the variation depending chiefly upon the 

 length of the hind claw, which differs a good deal in different individuals ; 

 eye black ; feet pale flesh-color (neary colorless) ;. upper mandible black, 

 the lower pale flesh-color ; upper parts dark brown streaked with pale 

 gray, the baldness of the pattern corresponding with the size of the 

 feathers, since the streaking constitutes the edging of each one; under 

 parts dull whitish or very pale clay-color, washed with a heavier or 

 lighter shade of brown across the breast and along the sides, these same 

 parts being sharply streaked with blackish; there is also a series of 

 small black streaks on each side of the throat ; quills of the wings fus- 

 cous, the inner ones and the coverts edged with grayish- white, like the 



