Notes on the Plumage of North American Sparrows 



17 



TALL MIGRATION, Continued 





PLACE 



Number 



of years' 



record 



Average date of 

 the last one seen 



Latest date of the 

 last one seen 



Big Sandy Mont 



2 



September 23 



September 5, 1905 

 September 23, 1906 

 October 20, 1888 



Terry Mont 









Notes on the Plumage of North American Sparrows 



SEVENTH PAPER 

 By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See frontispiece) 



McCown's Longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii, Figs. 1-3). McCown's 

 Longspur has the central pair of tail-feathers without white; all the rest are 

 white, and all but the outer pair are conspicuously tipped with black. The 

 outer pair is sometimes wholly white, but usually has a small brownish shaft- 

 streak near the tip. The juvenal plumage resembles that of the Chestnut- 

 collared Longspur, the breast being buffy streaked with blackish, the back 

 having the same ringed appearance as in that species. In first winter plu- 

 mage (Fig. 3) the black of the breast and crown is masked by the grayish and 

 brown tips of the feathers. In the adult at this season the black breast-patch 

 is apparently more exposed. Breeding-plumage is evidently acquired, largely, 

 if not entirely, by wear, which unveils the black of breast and head, and in much- 

 worn mid-summer specimens changes the lower breast and sides to gray. 



The female (Fig. 2) undergoes no marked seasonal changes in plumage. 

 Adult and juvenal are apparently alike in winter, and differ from adults ui 

 summer only in being browner. 



Smith's Longspur (Cakarius pidus, Figs. 4-6). This is not a common 

 bird in collections, and the small number of specimens in the American Museum 

 do not permit of a description of its plumage changes. At all seasons, however, 

 it may be known by its buffy-ochraceous underparts, without black markings. 

 Apparently the juvenal male is to be distinguished from the adult male in 

 winter by having the lesser wing-coverts brownish, instead of black, conspic- 

 uously bordered with white, and this difference appears to persist to the first 

 nuptial plumage, a breeding bird in the American Museum agreeing with the 

 adult male (Fig. 4) in every respect except in regards the wing-coverts, which 

 resemble those of the young male (juvenal) in winter. 



The adult female has the lesser wing-coverts black, the median wing-coverts 

 being broadly tipped with white, but in juvenal females (Fig. 6, labeled only 

 "female") these coverts are brownish and the white is not conspicuous. 



