42 THE OSPREY. 



visited the Mariannes many discrepancies appear in the vocabularies compiled 

 by them, especially in the vernacular names of the animals and plants in 

 their collections. For the most part these discrepancies result from the vari- 

 ous systems of orthography used, — Freycinet, Dumont d'Urville, Gaudichaud 

 and Marche representing the sounds of the words according to the French 

 system, Kotzebue and Chamisso by the German, and the Japanese collectors 

 by a method of their own which I have not yet been able to decipher. The 

 confusion has also been increased by spelling some of the words after the 

 Spanish fashion, in which the Chamorro h is represented by the guttural Spanish 

 j, and in which mute Spanish A's are placed at the beginning of words before 

 vowels and interposed between vowels which do not form a diphthong. Thus 

 for the name of the Island of Guam, which is Guahan in the native vernacular, 

 we have the French Gouaham and the Spanish Guajan, both of which names 

 are misleading when read on a chart, if one is ignorant of the system of orthog- 

 raphy which has been employed. The Spanish ear, moreover, is offended by a 

 final consonant if the last syllable of a word be atonic, so that many geogra- 

 phical names in the islands are modified to such an extent that the original 

 words in many cases cannot be recognized. 



TO BE CONTINUED. 



NOTES OF McCOWN'S LONGSPUR IN MONTANA. 



By P. M. SiLLOWAT. 



The first specimen of Rhynchophanes mccoionii (Lawr.) that chanced 

 under my observation were the subjects of extended ogling on my part. It 

 was on April 24, 1899, on a cloudy, raw afternoon, when I had gone out 

 upon the neighboring bench to look for evidences of a belated spring. In the 

 bed of a miniature coulee that crossed my path was a bank of snow, sullenly 

 giving way before the weak assaults of the advancing vernal season. Crouch- 

 ing under the lee of a small stone, and hugging the edge of the snow-bank, a 

 new bird caught my eye. The stranger was apparently as interested in the 

 featherless biped as I was in him, for he allowed me to approach until I could 

 observe every detail of his handsome breeding plumage, so that there was no 

 call for me to deprive him of the life he was supporting with so much hardi- 

 hood along the line of melting snow. I can yet remember how the great tears 

 crossed down my cheeks as I faced the raw south wind in my efforts to watch every 

 movement of the Longspur and to take in every detail of his dress. Presently 

 I observed a second McCown's Longspur lurking near the first, the advance 

 guards of the troops that were soon to throng the prairies to rear their broods. 



The following Sunday afternoon proved too attractive outdoors to be re- 

 sisted, and while walking over the bench I suddenly found myself in the midst 



