Plectrophanes melanomus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 436, pl. lxxiv, f. 2.—Heermann, X, c, 13.
Sp. Char. Bill yellowish, dark brown along the culmen. Male. Crown, a short stripe behind the eye, and a short crescent behind the ear-coverts, entire breast as far back as the thighs, and the lesser wing-coverts, black. The black on the breast margined with dark cinnamon. Sides of head, chin, throat, and region behind the black of the belly, white. A broad half-collar of dark cinnamon-brown on the back of the neck. Tail-feathers mostly white; the innermost tipped with dark brown; the white ending in an acute angle. Length, 5.30; wing, 3.40; tail, 2.60. (No. 6,290.)
Hab. Eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, on the table-lands, north to Upper Missouri. Orizaba (Sclater, 1860, 251); San Antonio, Texas, spring (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 486); Fort Whipple, Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 84); Vera Cruz, plateau, breeding (Sumichrast, I, 551).
As already stated, this bird is very similar to P. ornatus. It appears to be a very little larger, or, at any rate, with considerably longer wings. The bill, however, is shorter and stouter; the hind claw decidedly longer. The chestnut of the back of the neck is darker. The white on the outer web of the tertiaries and secondaries is much purer and wider. The rufous margins of the pectoral feathers we have never seen in P. ornatus. The most striking peculiarity, however, is in having the shoulders black, instead of brown like the rest of the wing-feathers, edged with paler. Both have the white posterior row of lesser wing-coverts.
An immature male (6,291) has the black of the head mixed with brown, and a maxillary series of spots on each side of the throat. A female has a similar series of spots; the under parts generally being brownish-white, the shafts across the breast and along the sides streaked with brown, the concealed portions of the feathers light brown, fading out to the whitish exterior. There is no black on the shoulder, nor chestnut on the nape.
Fully mature specimens of this bird and of ornatus are so rare in collections as to render it difficult to decide positively as to their true relationship. It is by no means impossible that they merely represent different conditions of plumage of one species, but for the present, at least, we prefer to consider them as distinct. The P. melanomus is resident on the table-lands of Mexico.
Habits. Of the habits and general history of this species, very little is known. Its close resemblance to P. ornatus is suggestive of its probably equally close similarity in nesting, eggs, and manner of feeding. Specimens have been received from Mexico, from Fort Thorn, from New Mexico, Pole Creek, and the Black Hills. From the last-named places they were obtained in August and September.
Dr. Heermann, in his Report on the birds observed in Lieutenant Parke’s route near the 32d parallel, mentions having met with these birds, which he calls the Black-shouldered Longspur, at a large prairie-dog village some miles west of Puerto del Dado. They were in flocks, and were associated with P. maccowni. From that point to the Rio Grande he found both of these species abundant wherever they struck isolated water-holes, these being the only places for miles around where drink can be procured. When shot at, they rise as if to go away, but are forced to return, after describing a few curves, to the only spot where they can procure their necessary drink. They may thus be killed in great numbers. Dr. Heermann states that he has seen from a hundred to a hundred and fifty thus brought down in four or five discharges of a gun.
Mr. Dresser states that on the 4th of April a small flock of what was at first supposed to be the P. ornatus was noticed near the town of San Antonio. They were pursued, and found on the banks of the San Pedro. They were not very shy, and specimens were procured which proved to be of this species. This is the only time that they have been observed in
that part of the country, though they may have been mistaken for other species.