268 
The Alaska Longspur 
the feathers are gradually molted and replaced, the change extending 
slowly toward the bill. 
In winter and early spring Alaska Longspurs are very common in the 
open country along the Canadian boundary and throughout North Dakota 
and Montana, and thence west to Oregon and Washington. A vivid idea 
of the vast number of these birds in the aggregate is given by Dr. T. S. 
Roberts, in The Auk for 1907, in his account of the enormous number 
which perished during a storm in northwestern Iowa and southwestern 
Minnesota on the nights of March 13 and 14, 1904. In two square miles 
of icy surface on two small lakes. Dr. Roberts thinks nearly a million birds 
lay dead, and he estimates that in the vicinity prob- 
ably a million and a half birds perished that night. 
These birds had been caught in a storm of wet snow 
while migrating and, as the total area over which their bodies lay scat- 
tered exceeded 1,500 square miles, it is evident that the number killed 
must have been many millions. Such catastrophies must occasionally 
overtake birds like these, which live on open shelterless plains and exist 
so closely on the borders of winter. The wide extent of their breeding 
and wintering grounds, however, insures them against any serious danger 
to the species from local causes, no matter how destructive these may be. 
Classification and Distribution | 
The Alaska Longspur belongs to the Order Passeres, Family Fringillidco and 1 
Genus Calcarius. Its scientific name is Calcariiis lapponicus alascensis. It ranges ; 
and breeds throughout Northwestern America from the Mackenzie River westward c| 
to the islands in Bering Sea, and winters among the foothills of the eastern slope Jj 
of the Rocky Mountains from Oregon to southern Colorado. j 
I 
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Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 
