CALAMOSPIZA BICOLOR, LAEK BUNTING. 



163 



■ No example of a PasserelUne form was taken by either expedition ; but the P. " achis- 

 tacea " was originally based upon a specimen from the Platte, within the region em- 

 braced in the present report. 



I am much inclined to doubt the distinctness of any of the currently reputed species 

 Of Paaserella, but, as I observed in the Key, it may be as well to allow P. townseiidji to 

 rest upon its characters until its intergradation with iliaca is proven. In any event, 

 P "schisiacea" goes with totviisendli, as a paler variety. 



CALAMOSPIZA BIOOLOE, (Towns.) Bp. 



Lark Bunting. 



Fringilla Ucolor, Towns., Journ. Phila. Acad, vil, 1837, 189 ; Narr. 1839, 346.— AuD., 

 Orn. Biog. v, 1339, 19, pi. 390. 



Calamosinza licolor, Bp., List, 1638, 30 ; Consp. Av. i, 1850, 475.— Bd.,B. N. A. 1858, 492.— 

 Bd., Pr. Phila. Acad. Nov. 1*59 (Cape St. Lucas).— Hebem., P. R. R. Rep. x, 1859, 

 Route 32d par.. Birds, 13 (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona).— Hayd., Rep. 1862, 

 166.— Dkbss., Ibis, 1865, 490 (Texas).— CouES, Pr. Pnlla. Acad. 11^66, 86 (Ari- 

 zona).— Stev., U. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. ,1870, 465 (Wyoming).— Coop., B. Cal. i, 

 1870, 225.— Allen, Bull. M. C. Z. iii, 1872, 137, 177.— Hold., Pr. Bost. Soc. 1872, 

 201 (Wyoming).— CouES, Key, 1872, 147.— Snow, B. Kans. 1873, 7.— B. B. &. E., 

 N. A. B. ii, 1874, 61, pi. 29, f. 2, 3. 



Corydalina Ucolor, Aud., Svn. 1839, 130.— Aud., B. Am. iii, 1841, 195, pi. 202.— Maxim., 

 J. f. O. vi, 1858, 347. 



Bolichonyx Ucolor, Nurr., Man. i, 2d ed. 1840, 203. 



Hai. — United States, Plains to the Rocky Mountains, 

 across to Lower California. 



List of Specimens. 



Southward to Mexico, and 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition. — 5375, seventy miles above Yellowstone ; 5076, Medi- 

 cine Butte ; 8928-29-31, Loup Fork of Platte. 



Later Expeditions. — 60392-5, Camp Curling and Bitter Cottonwood; 60760, North 

 Butte. 



The Lark Bunting is one of the most singularly specialized of all our 

 fringilline forms. As implied in its name, it has somewhat the habits 

 of a Lark, and shares the long inner secondary quills. An eminently 

 terrestrial bird, yet the hind claw is neither lengthened nor straight- 

 ened as is usual with passerine birds frequenting the ground almost 

 exclusively. The bill is that of a Grosbeak, being shaped almost ex- 

 actly like that of Goniapliea ccerulea for instance, and the sexual differ- 

 ences in plumage are as great as in that bird. But a more remarkable 

 circumstance still is the seasonal change of plumage, wt^ich is exactly 

 correspondent with that of the Bobolink, to which the species bears a 

 general similarity in coloration. This fact was first noticed, I believe, 

 by Mr. Allen, in the paper above quoted : "After the moulting season, 

 the males assume the plumage of the female, the change in color being 

 similar to that of the males of Bolichonyx o7-yzivora." There is still 

 another curious analogy, that the same writer has brought out: "It 

 has habits that strongly recall the Yellow-breasted Chat, singing gen- 

 erally on the wing, hovering in the same manner as that bird, while its 

 notes are so similar to those of the Chat, as to be scarcely distinguish- 

 able from them." 



This author remarks that he found the bird very wary and difficult 

 to shoot — a fact at variance with my own experience. I found it com- 

 mon from the plains in Kansas to the Eaton Mountains, westward of 

 which I never saw it. In some places it was extremely abundant, and 

 fairly to be considered the characteristic species. This was in June, 



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