A. O. U. 536a. Calcarius lapponicus alascensis Ridgw.
Description.—Adult male in summer: Head, throat, and fore-breast black; a buffy line behind eye and sometimes over eye; a broad nuchal patch, or collar, of chestnut-rufous; remaining upperparts light grayish brown, streaked with black and with some whitish edging; below white; heavily streaked with black on sides and flanks; tail fuscous with oblique white patches on the outer rectrices; feet and legs black; bill yellow with black tip. Adult male in winter: Lighter above; the black of head and chestnut of cervical collar partially overlaid with buffy or whitish edging; the black of throat and breast more or less obscured by whitish edging. Adult female in summer: Similar to male in summer, but no continuous black or chestnut anywhere; the black of head mostly confined to centers of feathers,—these edged with buffy; the chestnut of cervical collar only faintly indicated as edging of feathers with sharply outlined dusky centers; black of throat and chest pretty thoroly obscured by grayish edging, but the general pattern retained; sides and flanks with a few sharp dusky streaks. Adult female in winter: [Description of October specimen taken in Seattle] Above buffy grayish brown streaked (centrally upon feathers) with black, wing coverts and tertials with rusty areas between the black and the buffy, and tipped with white; underparts warm buffy brownish, lightening on lower breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts (where immaculate), lightly streaked with black on throat, chest, and sides, sharply on sides and flanks. Length of adult males about 6.50; wing 3.77 (95.8); tail 2.50 (63.3); bill .46 (11.7); tarsus .86 (21.8). Female smaller.
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; terrestrial habits; black head and breast of male. The bird may be distinguished from the Horned Lark, with which it sometimes associates, by the greater extent of its black areas, and by the chirruping or rattling cry which it makes when rising from the ground.
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. 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: 4-6, 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 .80 × .62 (20.3 × 15.7). Season: first week in June; one brood.
General Range.—“The whole of Alaska, including (and breeding on) the Pribilof and Aleutian Islands, Unalaska, and the Shumagins; east to Fort Simpson, south in winter thru more western parts of North America to Nevada (Carson City), eastern Oregon, Colorado, western Kansas, etc.” (Ridgway).
Range in Washington.—Presumably of more or less regular occurrence in winter on the East-side. Casual west of the Cascades.
Authorities.—[“Lapland Longspur,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885) 22.] Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 483.
By all the rules this bird should be abundant in winter in the stubble fields of the Palouse country, if not upon the prairies of Pierce, Thurston, and Chehalis Counties. Bendire reported them from Camp Harney in eastern Oregon, and Brooks says they are common on Sumas Prairie, B. C.; but we have only one authentic record for this State, that of a straggler taken near Seattle in October, 1907. These Longspurs abound in Alaska during the nesting season, but it would appear that the mountain barriers habitually deflect their autumnal flight to the eastward, and that the few which reach us straggle down the coast.
Those who have seen Iowa prairies 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 estimates that a million and a half of these “Lapland” Longspurs perished in and about the village of Worthington alone; and he found that this destruction, tho not elsewhere so intense, extended over an area of fifteen hundred square miles.
In spite of such buffetings of fortune, those birds which do reach Alaska bring a mighty cheer with them to the solitudes. As Nelson says: “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 tussocks. The male utters its song as it flies upward from one of these knolls and when it reaches the height of ten or fifteen yards, it extends the points of its wings upwards, forming a large V-shaped figure, and floats gently to the ground, uttering, as it slowly sinks, its liquid tones, which fall in tinkling succession upon the ear, and are perhaps the sweetest notes that one hears during the entire spring-time in these regions. It is an exquisite jingling melody, having much less power than that of the Bobolink, but with the same general character, and, tho shorter, it has even more melody than the song of that well known bird.”
No. 38.
WESTERN LARK SPARROW.
A. O. U. No. 552 a. Chondestes grammacus strigatus (Swains.).
Synonyms.—Quail-head. Western Lark Finch.
Description.—Adult: Head variegated, black, white, and chestnut; lateral head-stripes black in front, chestnut behind; auriculars chestnut, bounded by rictal and post-orbital black stripes; narrow loral, and broader submalar black stripes; malar, superciliary, and median stripes white, the two latter becoming buffy behind; upper parts buffish gray brown, clearest on sides of neck, streaked by blackish brown centers of feathers on middle back and scapulars, persisting as edging on the fuscous wings and tail; tail-feathers, except middle pair, broadly tipped with white; below white, purest on throat and belly, washed with grayish buff on sides and crissum, also obscurely across fore-breast, in which is situated a central black spot. Length 6.25 (158.8); wing 3.35 (85); tail 2.68 (68); bill .47 (12); tarsus .80 (20.3).
WESTERN LARK SPARROW.
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; head variegated black, white, and chestnut; fan-shaped tail broadly tipped with white and conspicuous in flight (thus easily distinguished from the Western Vesper Sparrow with square tail and lateral white feathers).
Nesting.—Nest: of grasses, lined with finer grass, rootlets and occasionally horse-hair, on the ground or, rarely, in low bushes or trees. Eggs: 5, white, pinkish or bluish white, spotted and scrawled in zigzags and scrolls with dark browns or purplish blacks, chiefly at the larger end; notably rounded in shape. Av. size .82 × .65 (20.8 × 16.5). Season: May 15-June 5; one brood, rarely two.
General Range.—Western United States and plateau of Mexico; north to middle British Columbia, Manitoba, etc.; east to eastern border of Great Plains; west to Pacific Coast, including peninsula of lower California; south in winter to Guatemala.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident east of Cascades only, in Upper Sonoran and Arid Transition zones.
Migrations.—Wallula, May 6, 1907; Yakima Co., May 1, 1906; ibid, May 3, 1900; Chelan, May 19, 1896.
Authorities.—[“Western lark finch,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T., 1884 (1885), 22.] Belding, Land Birds Pacific District (1890), p. 148 (Walla Walla, J. W. Williams, 1885). (T.) (C&S.) D¹. D². Ss¹. Ss². J.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) C. P.
Taken in Douglas County. Photo by the Author.
A SAGE-BUSH NEST.
As in the case of the Sandwich and Savanna Sparrows, the curiously striped coloration of this bird’s head is evidently intended to facilitate concealment. The bird peering out of a weed clump is almost invisible. And yet, as I was once passing along a sage-clad hillside in Chelan county with an observing young rancher, my companion halted with a cry. He had caught the gleam of a Lark Sparrow’s eye as she sat brooding under a perfect mop of dead broom-sage. The camera was brought into requisition, and the lens pointed downward. The camera-cloth bellied and flapped in the breeze, yellow tripod legs waved belligerently, and altogether there was much noise of photographic commerce, but the little mother clung to her eggs. The stupid glass eve of the machine, spite of all coaxing, saw nothing but twigs, and we were obliged to forego a picture of the sitting bird. To get the accompanying picture of eggs, I was obliged to hack away the protecting brush, having first slipped in a handkerchief to protect the nest and contents from showering debris.
