The Alaska Longspur 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: In grass tussock on ground, 

 flimsy or bulky, of grasses and moss, frequently water-soaked, and lined carefully 

 with fine coiled grass, and occasionally feathers. Eggs: 4 to 6; light clay-color with 

 a pale greenish tinge, variously marked, — speckled, spotted, scrawled, blotched, or 

 entirely overlaid with light brown or chocolate brown. Av. size 20.3 x 15.7 (.80 x .62). 

 Season: First week in June; one brood. 



General Range of Calcarius lapponicus. — Northern portion of Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, breeding in Arctic region. 



Range of C. J. alascensis. — "The whole of Alaska, including (and breeding 

 on) the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands, Unalaska, and the Shumagins; east to Fort 

 Simpson, south in winter through more western parts of North America to Nevada 

 (Carson City), eastern Oregon, Colorado, western Kansas, etc." (Ridgway). 



Occurrence in California. — Two records, one by Frank Stephens, False Bay, 

 San Diego County, Oct. 2, 1909 (Condor, XII., 1910, p. 44), and one by Henry W. 

 Marsden, Gunthers Island, Eureka, Oct. 2, 1909 (Condor, XII., 1910, p. no). 



Authorities. — As above. 



IT IS a curious coincidence that the only two records of the occur- 

 rence of the Lapland Longspur in California were made on the same day, 

 October 2, 1909, and from localities so widely separated as Eureka and 

 San Diego. In both instances, also, the birds were found near the ocean. 

 In this respect they preserved the tradition of springtime, for in their 

 Alaskan home the Longspurs breed down to tidewater; but their winter 

 home is, preferably, the dry prairies of the interior. It would not be sur- 

 prising, therefore, if the birds were to be found in Modoc and Lassen 

 counties in winter; but their occurrence on the coast was purely fortuitous. 



Those who have seen the prairies of Iowa or Kansas give up these 

 birds by scores and hundreds every few rods, have been able to form some 

 conception of their vast numbers; but it remained for the storm of March 

 13-14, 1904, to reveal the real order of magnitude of their abundance. An 

 observer detailed by the Minnesota State Natural History Survey esti- 

 mates that a million and a half of these "Lapland" Longspurs perished in 

 and about the village of Worthington alone; and he found that this de- 

 struction, though not elsewhere so intense, extended over an area of 

 fifteen hundred square miles. 



In spite of these occasional bufferings of fortune, such birds as do 

 reach Alaska bring a mighty cheer with them to the solitudes. As Nelson 

 says: 1 "When they arrive, early in May, the ground is still largely covered 

 with snow, with the exception of grassy spots along southern exposures 

 and the more favorably situated portions of the tundra, and here may be 

 found these birds in all the beauty of their elegant summer dress. The 

 males, as if conscious of their handsome plumage, choose the tops of the 

 only breaks in the monotonous level, which are small rounded knolls and 



1 Rep. Nat. Hist. Colls, in Alaska, 1887, p. 183. 



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