The partly fledged birds, late in June or early in July, have the 

 feathers of the crown, back, rump, breast, and throat with black or 

 very dark-brown shaft-lines, which, on the breast and throat, are 

 narrowed to about one-third the width of the feather. On the crown 

 and back the black central markings occupy more than half the width. 

 The feathers of the crown are edged with a dingy, yellowish buff; 

 those of the nape with grayish or dull ashy; and of the back and rump 

 with a dingy yellowish gray or bufify. There are two indistinct white 

 wing-bars. The edges of the breast-feathers are yellowish, with a 

 wash of the same on the feathers of the entire under surface. This 

 state of plumage is scarcely attained before it begins to give place to 

 the fall and winter dress with which we are familiar, when the birds 

 come trooping down to the northern United States from the north 

 at the commencement of winter. 



Beginning on the lower parts, the feathers are gradually molted 

 and replaced, the change extending slowly toward the bill. I am in- 

 clined to think that the molt commences about the tail and rump. 

 It begins late in July or early in August, at which time the old birds 

 are already far advanced in their autumnal change. Adult males were 

 found with nearly complete winter dress on July 22, and probably 

 some change even earlier than this. They usually begin to move 

 south before they have fully molted, so that only the comparatively 

 few individuals that have completed the molt in September are found 

 in perfect winter dress on their northern breeding-grounds. The 

 young are out on the wing sometimes as early as the 1st of July, 

 but more generally by the 10th of this month, from which time 

 they unite in small bands, most of them on the open plains, but many 

 frequenting the vicinity of the trading-posts and native villages. 

 They remain in great abundance until the last of August or first of 

 September, when they commence their straggling departure for the 

 South. While in the neighborhood of houses, they are extremely 

 heedless of the presence of people, and are nearly as familiar as are the 

 English sparrows in our cities. By the first of October, the last one 

 has passed away southward. 



In winter and early spring the longspurs are very common over 

 the prairie-lands of the upper half of the Mississippi River Valley, 

 and thence west to Oregon and Washington. 



71 



