more than half as much in depth; the bottom is very thin in comparison with the 

 brim, which is well defined. The eggs are usually four in number, measuring about 

 four-fifths of an inch long by three-fifths broad, and are not peculiar in shape. They 

 are grayish-white, more or less clouded, and mottled obscurely with pale purplish-gray, 

 which confers the prevailing tone; this is overlaid with numerous surface markings of 

 points, scratches, and small spots of dark brown, wholly indeterminate in distribution 

 and number, but always conspicuous, being sharply displayed upon the subdued ground- 

 color. I think that two or three broods are reared each season, for I have found firesh 

 eggs and newly hatched birds the same day, July 18, when a w^eek before I had seen 

 young birds already on the wing ; and again, I have found fresh eggs so late as the first 

 week in August. When the nest is approached, the female generally walks quietly off, 

 after a little flutter, threading her way through the grass till she is at a safe distance, 

 and then taking wing. Should the young be hatched, however, both parents will hover 

 together close overhead, in evident distress, with beseeching cries." In the fall they 

 associate with the Lapland and Smith's Longspur, and in October they wend their way 

 south. "Like other small birds of the prairies, it haunts the roads where, as the grass 

 is worn av(ray from the wheel-tracks, it feeds and runs with the greatest ease. I never 

 saw one alight except on the ground. In flight, it may always be recognized by the 

 amount of w^hite on the tail." 



NAMES: Chestnut-collared Lo.ncspur, Chesttiut-coUared Bunting, Black-bellied Longspur. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Plectrophanes ornatus Towns. (1837). Emberiza ornata Aud. (1839). Plectro- 

 phanes ornatus Cab. (1851). CALCARIUS ORNATUS Stejn. (1882). 



DESCRIPTION: "Bill, dark plumbeous. Male: Crown, a narrow crescent on the side of the head, with a 

 line running into it from behind the eye, entire breast and upper part of belly all round, black; 

 throat and sides of. the head, lower part of belly and under tail-coverts with bases of the tail-feathers, 

 white. The white on the tail-feathers runs forward as an acute point. A chestnut band on the back 

 of the neck extending round on the sides. Rest of upper parts, grayish-brown, streaked with darker. 

 Middle coverts with a white patch. Lesser wing-coverts like the back. Legs, dusky, bill, blue. 

 Female lacking the black and chestnut colors. 



"Length about 6.00 inches; wing, 3.35; tail, 3.30 inches." (B. B. & R. I. p. 520.) 



MC GOWN'S LO^H3SPUR. 



Rhyncbophanes mccownii Baird. 



During a two years' residence near the West Yegua Creek, in Lee County, Texas, 

 1 had an excellent opportunity of observing a number of birds which I never had seen 

 alive before. Among these, to me, new birds McCown's Longspur was one of the 

 most interesting. When walking through the weedy and grassy com and cotton fields 

 in December, January, and February, I was almost sure to find large assemblages of 

 Henslow's, Leconte's, Savanna, and Grasshopper Sparrows, Baird's Buntings, Vesper 

 Sparrows, and Homed Larks. Among these flocks I met McCowti's Longspurs for the 

 first time in December 1881. They usually kept together in flocks from ten to fifty, 

 but were often associated with the above named species. When startled they fly in an 

 easy, wavy, circling manner over the ground, always uttering soft chirruping notes 

 while flying. Like all Longspurs they swiftly run over the ground without uttering a 



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