COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 583 



PLECTROPHANES MACCOWNI, Lawr. 

 Black-breasted Longspur. 



This species was never seen in the Red River region, and I do not 

 think it occurs in that watershed, which is so thickly populated in 

 summer with P. ornatus, as already described. It seems to be one of 

 the many birds that mark the natural division between that region and 

 the Missouri Basin, I first encountered it June 21, 1874, a day's march 

 above Port Buford. The specimen obtained was a young one, not quite 

 able to fly. As we progressed toward the Milk River, the bird' grew 

 more and more abundant, and it occurred throughout the country thence 

 to the Rocky Mountains. There were some points on the route where 

 it was scarcely to be seen (as is usually the case with the small prairie 

 birds) ; but this was a matter of slight local distribution, for the species 

 was equally numerous, " in spots," throughout the country. P. ornatus 

 accompanied it in some numbers about as far as Frenchman's River, 

 where both species were breeding, and a few stragglers were noted 

 along the whole way; but, in spite of this admixture, P. maccowni is to 

 be considered the characteristic species of the genus in the Missouri 

 watershed at this latitude, just as P, ornatus is in that of the Red River. 



Maccown's Longspur was very abundant in the country about French- 

 man's River, and equally so about the headwaters of Milk River and in 

 the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It does not appear, how- 

 ever, to enter the mountains themselves, but stops just short of the 

 beginning of the trees, — just where the Spermophili give way to the 

 Geomyidce and the Badgers to the Woodcliucks. Of its periods of nidifi- 

 cation and laying I am less precisely informed than in the case of P. 

 ornatus. The fledgling taken June 21 indicates an early June brood, 

 corresponding to the first one of P. ornatus ; but I took no eggs after 

 July 10, when the only set in the collection was secured. Young birds 

 in all stages were common from this time until the latter part of August, 

 and I have no doubt that at least two broods are reared each season. 

 The nidification is substantially the same as that of P. ornatus. The 

 few sets of eggs I have examined are of the same size as those of the 

 bird just named, and closely resemble the lighter-colored varieties of the 

 latter. The ground-color, however, is dull white, without the purplish- 

 gray clouding so noticeable in the eggs of P. ornatus. The markings 

 are rather sparse and obscurely mottled, with some heavier, sharper, 

 scratchy ones, all of different shades of brown. According to analogy, 

 it is reasonable to presume upon the same wide range of variation in 

 this case that is known to obtain elsewhere in the genus Plectrophancs. 



While the females are incubating, the males have a very pretty way 

 of displaying themselves and of letting the music out at the same time. 

 They soar to a little height, and then, fixing the extended wings at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees with their bodies, sink slowly down to the 



