The Alaska Longspur 
267 
Situation 
of Nest 
thick linins: of 
nore pronounced. In one instance, the female was frightened from her 
iggs just as they were about to hatch, and ran along the ground a few 
y^ards, uttering a plaintive chee-chee-chee in a fine, vibrating, metallic tone, 
dragging her outspread wings and tail on the ground, and buttering as 
f in mortal agony. 
The nests vary in size, but average about two and three-fourths inches 
in depth by five inches across the top on the outside, and the central 
avity is about two inches deep and three inches across the top. The walls 
are sometimes thick and strong, composed of an abundance of material, 
but may be a mere cup-shaped shell, barely sufficient to hold the eggs. 
In most cases they are composed of rather coarse grass, sometimes with 
moss interwoven, forming a thick layer that frequently is as thoroughly 
water-soaked as a wet sponge. In a damp situation much more material 
is used than on a dryer spot ; but the interior in- 
variably contains fine, soft, yellow blades of last year’s 
grasses, sometimes mixed with feathers of ptarmigans 
and other wild birds. One that I examined had a 
feathers and dogs’ hair. 
The eggs number from four to seven, and are heavily covered with 
blotches and zigzag lines of various shades of brown, and the ground- 
color, when visible, is greenish clay-color. 
The young are out on the wing sometimes as early as the first of July, 
but more usually about the tenth of this month, after which they unite 
in small bands, and are seen about the trading-posts and native villages, 
where they are heedless of the presence of people, and are nearly as 
familiar as the English Sparrows in our cities. They remain in great 
abundance until the last of August or first of September, when they 
begin their straggling departure. By the first of October, the last one 
has passed away toward the south, and none are seen until returning 
spring brings them north again. 
They usually begin to move southward 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 serial changes of plumage as summer advances 
are worthy of note. 
By the first of July, as a rule, the partly fledged birds have the feathers 
of the crown, back, rump, breast, and throat marked with black or very 
dark-brown shaft-lines, which vary from one-third to one-half the width 
of the feather. The feathers of the crown and back are edged with a 
dingy, yellowish buff ; those on the nape, with grayish 
or dull ashy. The edges of the breast-feathers are 
soiled yellowish, with a wash of the same on the 
feathers of the entire undersurface. There are two indistinct white 
wing-bars. This state of plumage is hardly 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 United States from the North 
at the beginning of winter. Beginning on the lower and caudal parts, 
Autumn 
Plumage 
