352 Birds of Colorado 
Larks in large flocks. Brunner found large numbers of these birds 
lying dead by the railroad track between Wray, Colo., and Heigler 
Neb., November 16th, 1901. They had been killed by flying against 
the telegraph wires. 
Habits.—Like the preceding one, this species breeds 
far away in the north and comes south in large flocks 
in October, wandering over the desolate and treeless 
prairies in immense numbers, and subsisting on grass 
and weed seeds; they skim over the ground in a wavy 
zigzag manner, and as soon as they alight, run swiftly 
hither and thither in search of their food. They often 
fall a prey to the Prairie-Falcon and other hawks. 
Chestnut-collared Longspur. Calcarius ornatus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 538—Colorado Records—Ridgway 79, p. 228; 
Allen & Brewster 83, p. 161; Drew 85, p. 16; Morrison 89, p. 36; 
Cooke 97, p. 100; Gilman 07, p. 156; Henderson 09, p. 236. 
Description.—Male in summer—Crown, stripe behind the eye, spot 
below the ear-coverts, chest and abdomen black; lower parts often 
with a strong rufous wash; hind-neck deep chestnut-rufous ; super- 
ciliary stripe, chin and throat white, rest of the back streaked with bufty 
and dusky; tail white, with increasing amounts of dusky at the tips 
from the outer-feathers inwards ; lesser wing-coverts black, with white 
tips forming a shoulder-patch. Length 5-5; wing 3-40; tail 2-4; 
tarsus -75 ; culmen -40. 
In winter the black and chestnut are almost completely obscured by 
buffy tips and edges to the feathers. The female is streaked above 
throughout with dusky and buffy, and is pale greyish-buff below ; 
tail as in the male, but no black shoulder-patch to the wing. The 
young bird is at first like the female. 
Distribution.—Breeding throughout the prairie states from Kansas 
north to Saskatchewan, south in winter to Mexico and Arizona. 
This species appears to be a somewhat rare resident both in winter 
and summer in eastern Colorado, while during migration it is more 
plentiful. Winter records are: Fort Collins, Loveland, Boulder, Pueblo 
and Fort Lyon (Cooke); while in summer it has been noted near 
Colorado Springs (Allen & Brewster) ; at Resolis in Elbert co., and 
Squirrel Creek in eastern E] Paso co. (Aiken); and at Cortez in the 
south-western part of the State on April 4th by Warren (Gilman, 07). 
Though not actually recorded as breeding in the State, there can be 
little doubt that it does so. 
