LAND BIRDS. 487 
This is another winter resident, often found with the Snow Buntings 
and Horned Larks, but usually singly or in small numbers. On the other 
hand as a migrant it frequently occurs in October and November, and 
again in April and May, in large flocks, but apparently these do not use 
the same route in successive years, for the visits at any one place seem to 
be quite irregular. It seems to come from the north earlier than the Snow 
Bunting, often as early as the first of October (Charity Island, Saginaw 
Bay, Sept. 30, 1910, Wood), and frequently lingers until after the first of 
May. We have records of two specimens killed on Spectacle Reef Light- 
house, in northern Lake Huron, May 17, 1891, and May 15, 1892. Accord- 
ing to Swales it does not occur commonly in southeastern Michigan, where 
he has never observed it personally; on the other hand Mr. J. Claire Wood 
states that he finds it a common spring migrant near Detroit up to the 
first week in May. At Houghton, Mich., Mr. Wilbur H. Grant found it 
by thousands October 1 and 2, 1904, and W. P. Melville found specimens 
with a flock of Shore Larks at Sault Ste. Marie. October 6, 1898. At 
Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1904, Mr. William Wilkowski, Jr., states that they 
were first seen November 11, and were still there in flocks of hundreds on 
November 19. He also says that they were abundant there during Decem- 
ber, 1902, and January, 1903. 
In Ingham county it does not seem to be abundant regularly, but was 
noted in some numbers by T. L. Hankinson as late as November 15, 1896, 
and again in large flocks March 21, 1897. Undoubtedly the great majority 
pass far south in the fall and return again in the spring, while compara- 
tively few spend the winter with us. At Grand Rapids C. W. Gunn recorded 
it years ago as a rare winter visitor, appearing in company with Shore 
Larks and Snow Buntings; and in St. Clair county, Mr. P. A. Taverner 
states that according to his experience there is always a little bunch of 
Longspurs with each large flock of Snowflakes. For an account of the 
migration of this species, from its breeding grounds north of the 60th 
parallel to its winter quarters between the 40th and 37th parallel see R. 
H. Howe, Jr., Auk, XVIII, 1901, 396-397. 
Its food while with us consists entirely of seeds of various weeds and 
grasses, and so far as we know is precisely like that of the Snow Bunting. 
' Before leaving us in the late spring it often sings snatches of its beautiful 
song, but hardly enough to give a good idea of its quality. Of its song 
in Alaska Mr. E. W. Nelson says: ‘It is an exquisite jingling melody, 
having much less power than that of the Bobolink, but of the same general 
character; though shorter it has even more melody” (Nat. Hist. Coll. in 
Alaska, p. 184). 
It breeds only in the far north, building its nest of grasses, moss, ete. 
on the ground and laying three to six eggs, which are dull white, heavily 
spotted and washed with brown, and averaging .83 by .60 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Claw of hind toe longer than toe itself, gently curved; outer tail-feather with inner web 
largely blackish. . ’ 
Adult male in spring: Top and sides of head, entire throat, and chest deep black, often 
with a few white or rusty feathers; a buffy or whitish stripe behind the eye, running down 
the side of neck to the breast; hind neck with a reddish brown or chestnut collar; rest of 
upper parts streaked with black and buffy in about equal amounts; breast, belly and under 
tail-coverts white; sides and flanks streaked with blackish; wings blackish, with two narrow 
white bars (on tips of greater and middle coverts), the outer primary edged with white 
on outer vane; two outer pairs of tail-feathers marked obliquely with white. The adult 
