COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 



585 



List of specimens — Con tinned. 



PASSBECULUS BAIEDI, {And.) Coues. 



Baird's Bunting. 



It isdiflBcult to understand how this bird eluded observation for thirty 

 years — from the time of its original discovery by Audubon, on the Upper 

 Missouri', nearly to the present day. If the species were really rare, this 

 would not be remarkable ; but it has lately been shown to be extremely 

 abundant in different parts of the West. I did not meet with it along 

 the Eed Eiver itself, but found it as soon as I passed from the Pembina 

 Mountains to the boundless prairie beyond. In some particular spots, 

 it outnumbered all the other birds together ; and on an average through 

 the country, from the Pembina Mountains to the Mouse Eiver, it was one 

 of the trio of commonest birds, — the Skylarks and Chestnut-collared 

 Longspurs being the other two. The first specimens I procured were 

 taken July 14. Some of them were newly fledged, but the great majority 

 were adult males, showing that at that time the breeding-season was at 

 its height. Out of thirty-one specimens secured July 14 and 15, only one 

 was a female, the individuals of this sex being evidently occupied with 

 the duty of incubating or brooding their young. The males at this time 

 were very conspicuous, like Spizella pallida under the same circum- 

 stances, as they sat singing on the weeds or low bushes of the prairie. 

 The song consists of two or three d istinct syllables, followed by a trill 

 uttered in a mellow, tinkling tone. The nest I never succeeded in find- 

 ing, although I must have passed by many. The eggs were first dis- 

 covered by Mr. Allen in the region just south of me. They were taken 

 July 1, 1873, the date corresponding to that which I fixed as the laying 

 season from consideration of the habits of the birds. The nest and eggs 

 are described from his specimens in the "Birds of the Korthwest". 

 Whether or not two broods are reared, I cannot say ; but some of my 

 late summer specimens were so young that I judged they might belong 

 to a second brood. Birds of apparently about the same age were shot 

 six weeks apart. 



