The Chestnut-collared Longspur 



General Range. — The central plains region. Breeds from southern Sas- 

 katchewan, south to central Kansas, and from the prairie portion of Montana east 

 to western Minnesota; winters from Nebraska and Iowa to Sonora and southern 

 portion of Mexican tableland; accidental in New England, Maryland, and California. 



Range in California. — Of accidental occurrence in Inyo County (Cow Camp, 

 15 miles north of Darwin, Sept. 28, 1917 — an immature female taken by Joseph Grin- 

 nell). 



Authority. — Grinnell, Condor, vol. xx., 1918, p. 87. 



THE OCCURRENCE of a single straggler taken by Grinnell in 

 eastern Inyo County extends by a considerable distance the potential 

 range of Calcarins ornatus. The bird is rated by Swarth 1 an abundant 

 migrant, and less commonly a winter resident in extreme eastern Arizona, 

 "occasionally straggling further westward." The normal range of the 

 species is the Great Plains region; and it would appear that the south- 

 ward-moving hordes sweep around the southern end of the Rockies in 

 New Mexico, and so into Arizona and Sonora, rather than risk crossing 

 the Rocky Mountains at a point further north. This California wan- 

 derer, on the other hand, probably became involved with birds of some 

 other species crossing the Rockies in Wyoming or northern Colorado. 



Of the birds' appearance near Fort Hays, Kansas, Dr. Allen writes :' 

 "They live in summer in large scattered colonies, generally many pairs 

 being found at the same locality, while they may not be again met with 

 in a whole day's travel. We found them very shy for so small birds, and 

 were obliged to obtain all our specimens by shooting them on the wing at 

 long range. They breed, of course, on the ground, constructing a rather 

 slight but neat nest of dry grass and the stems of small plants. The eggs 

 appear to be commonly five in number, blotched and streaked with rusty 

 on a white ground, full sets of which were obtained the first week in June. 

 This species has the curious habit of circling round the observer, with a 

 buoyant, undulatory flight, generally high in the air, and usually keeping 

 all the while well out of range, uttering, meanwhile, its rather sharp but 

 musical call notes." 



1 Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 10, 1914. p. 51. 



2 In Coues' "Birds of the Northwest," 1874, pp. 122-123. 



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