COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 



List of specimens — Continued. 



587 



COTURNI(3ULUS LECONTII, {Aud.) Bp. 



LeCoNTE'S BUNTINGr. 



The rediscovery of tbis little-known and extremely interesting species 

 in Dakota was made in the season of 1873 by the Commission. On the 

 march between Turtle Mountain and the first crossiug of Mouse River, 

 I came upon what seemed to be a small colony of the birds in a moist 

 depression of the prairie, where the herbage was waist-high. By dili- 

 gent search, after shooting the first specimen and perceiving what it was,. 

 I managed, not without difficulty, to secure five in all. This was on the 

 9th of August. I subsequently found the bird again, and secured a sixth 

 specimen, amongst the reeds of a prairie slough near the headwaters of 

 the river just mentioned. So far as I could determine from short obser- 

 vation, the birds are much like the Ammodromi in their general habits 

 and appearance, and they inhabit similar situations. Their note was a 

 chirring noise, like that of a grasshopper. They were started at random 

 from the tall, waving grass, flitted in sight for a few seconds, and then 

 dropped suddenly, so that the chances of shooting them were very poor* 

 One was killed at very close range by a blow from the toad of my car- 

 tridge, the charge of shot having passed in lump close by. I have no 

 doubt that the birds were breeding in this place, though no nests were 

 found. Their retiring habits and the nature of their resorts havo 

 doubtless caused them to be overlooked for years. Audubon says that 

 he found them common on the Upper Missouri. A specimen, in poor 

 condition, from Texas, was the only one known to exist in any collection 

 before these of mine were secured, Audubon's type having been lost or 

 mislaid. A redescription of the species, in which it is shown that the 

 characters originally assigned required modification, is given in the 

 ''Birds of the Northwest ". 



