Genus Ammodromus. Swainson, Zool. Jour. III. p. 348. (1827.)
Ammodromus rostratus. (Cassin.)
Emberiza rostrata. Cassin, Proc. Acad., Philada., VI. p. 184. (1852.)
Form. Short, and rather heavy; bill lengthened, strong; wings with the
first, second, and third quills longest, and nearly equal; tail rather
short, emarginate; legs and feet moderately strong.
Dimensions. Total length of skin, about 5¼ inches; wing, 2¾; tail, 2
inches.
Colors. Entire plumage above dull-brownish and cinereous, every feather
longitudinally marked with the former, and tipped and edged with the
latter, the brown stripes being most strongly marked on the head and
back; narrow superciliary lines ashy-white; throat and entire
under-parts white, with longitudinal stripes, and arrow-heads of brown
on the breast and flanks; stripes of this character forming lines on the
sides of the neck from the lower mandible, above which are stripes of
white; abdomen and under tail-coverts dull white; wings and tail brown,
edged with paler shades of the same color, nearly white on the
outer-webs of the external feathers of the tail, deeper and tinged with
rufous on the wing-coverts and exposed edges of the secondaries; bill
and feet light-colored, the former brownish above (in dried skin).
Hab. California. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Museum,
Washington.
Obs. We are acquainted with no species which this bird resembles in any
considerable degree, though its general characters are similar to the
birds that we have mentioned in the present article. Its bill is
remarkably large and strong, and its entire organization robust.
PLECTROPHANES McCOWNII.—Lawrence.
McCown’s Bunting.
PLATE XXXIX. Adult Male and Female in Summer Plumage.
It is not only in the spring, or at the advent of the month sung by the
poets as the real birth of the year, that everywhere in the temperate
regions of North America, hosts of feathered travellers arrive, either
to remain for a season, or to continue their journey to more northern
countries. In the autumn and winter, also, troops of them constantly
appear, succeeding each other in some measure according to the earlier
or later setting in of winter, or the greater or less severity of that
season. Nearly all of the autumnal species, like our summer visitors,
proceed to the South to spend the winter—others, coming later, remain
during the whole of the winter, and are constantly recruited by new
comers of the same species, but at the first opening of spring, return
to their homes. Some, as the Purple Finch and the little Snow-bird, come
every winter—others, as the Pine Grosbeak, the Northern Linnet, and the
two species of Crossbills, only occasionally. Though abundant, perhaps,
for one season, years may elapse before either of the birds last
mentioned will be seen again by the most diligent collector. At the time
of writing the present article (December, 1853), both the White-winged
Crossbill and the common Crossbill (_Loxia leucoptera_ and _americana_),
are abundant in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, the former of which
has not before been seen here since the winter of 1835-6. The latter
appears more frequently.
In addition to these, we are visited by flocks of several species that
are to be found here rearing their young in the summer; but while our
bird reared in Pennsylvania has taken an excursion to the South, so his
Northern namesake, reared, perhaps, at Hudson’s Bay, has done the same,
and made Pennsylvania the limit of his journey. The Robin (_Merula
migratoria_) is an instance of this description of migration. This bird,
in large flocks, is to be met with almost every winter, especially in
New Jersey, and wanders much further southwardly and westward. We fancy
that we can distinguish a stranger of this species from one “native and
to the manor born.” The Northern Robin is slightly a larger bird than
our summer resident; his colors are a shade darker, and his bill
decidedly a clearer yellow. Though not presenting characters sufficient
at all to raise a suspicion of distinction in species, the northern bird
is clearly of a different race. And so it is, too, with the Red-winged
Blackbird, the Meadow Lark, the Golden-winged and the Red-headed
Woodpeckers, and other species, all of which come here in the winter
from more northern latitudes, and in most of which close observation
will detect small characteristics of difference in race.
[Illustration: Plate 39
M^cCown’s Bunting
Plectrophanes M^cCownii (_Lawrence_)]
The spring migration is confined to birds that pass the winter in the
South, in many cases not beyond the limits of the United States; but
there are birds that extend their journey to the islands of the West
Indies, to Mexico, and to Central America, and in some instances to
South America. Many of the Warblers, several of our common Thrushes and
Finches, and various others of our well-known North American species,
visit Cuba and Jamaica in the course of the winter, and in both those
islands some of them make their appearance while yet the season is not
so far advanced in the United States as to incommode them either by the
cold or an abridged supply of their favorite food.
The migration of these birds is a curious problem, and regulated by laws
entirely independent of the considerations of climate and supply of
food. One cannot readily find a reason why a bird that has passed the
winter in a tropical or southern latitude, should leave for the North at
the coming of spring, when a more plentiful supply of food than has
sufficed for its winter support is about to be presented. And then, too,
why should birds proceed so far to the North?—to the very confines of
the Arctic circle, as many small species do, when the great forests of
the middle and northern States offer ample accommodation, and supplies
of food certainly equal to those in which they will at last terminate
their journey. There are questions here difficult to answer. It would
appear that the existence of an animal is predicated on its performance
of certain functions antecedently involved in its organization. That its
entire history, we may say, is but an answer to the calls of
organization. That the organization and the performance of its indicated
functions are strictly exponents of each other, the latter modified by
circumstances, and the relations of species to each other, dependent in
some measure on circumstances, but not produced by them, no more than
forms or other physical characters. No feature in the history of an
animal is absolutely produced by circumstances. There is, too, the
consideration of inherited instincts, and if the faculty of memory, and
impressions on it, are transmissible, nearly the whole phenomena of
instinct may be explained.
In the western and southwestern countries of North America, within the
limits of the United States, various species of northern birds appear in
winter that have never been noticed on the Atlantic seaboard. The
handsome little bird that we present to the reader in the plate now
before him, is one of that description. It appears to be a native of the
extensive and little-known regions of northwestern America, migrating in
the winter to California, New Mexico, and Texas, where it has been seen
by several of our naturalists.
There are several species in Western America of the group to which this
bird belongs, all characterized by agreeable and somewhat similar
colors. In the States on the Atlantic, the Snow Bunting (_Plectrophanes
nivalis_) is their only relative that is of usual occurrence,—though
another, the Lapland Longspur (_Plectrophanes Lapponica_), occasionally
appears, and of the capture of which, in the neighborhood of
Philadelphia, several instances have come to our knowledge.
Capt. McCown, who discovered this present species in Texas, gives no
further account of it than that he shot it in company with a flock of
Shore Larks. His notice is in the Annals of the New York Lyceum of
Natural History, VI. p. 14. Dr. Henry has obtained it in the vicinity of
Fort Thorne, New Mexico. These, with Dr. Heermann, are the only
naturalists that have as yet noticed this bird in its native wilds.
During the survey for a route for a railroad to the Pacific, by Lieut.
Williamson’s party, to which Dr. Heermann was attached, he met with this
bird in large numbers, and his collection contains numerous specimens in
various stages of plumage. From these we have selected adults of both
sexes, from which the plate now before the reader has been prepared. In
Dr. Heermann’s manuscripts, kindly placed at our disposal for the
purposes of our present work, we find this bird thus noticed:—
“I found this species congregated in large flocks with the
chestnut-collared Lark Bunting (_Plectrophanes ornatus_), and engaged in
gleaning the seeds from the scanty grass on the vast arid plains of New
Mexico. Insects and berries also form part of their food, in search of
which they show considerable activity, running on the ground with ease
and celerity.
“We found this bird, as well as various other species, particularly
abundant whenever we struck on the isolated water-holes that occur in
this region, these being the only spots for miles around where water can
be obtained. When fired at, or otherwise alarmed, they rise as if to fly
away, but seem to be irresistibly impelled by thirst to return to the
only localities where relief is to be obtained, and where, if the hunter
is so inclined, large numbers of this handsome little bird, and others,
may be slaughtered with little exertion.
“From Dr. T. C. Henry, of the U. S. Army, I learned that in the spring,
large flocks of this species appear at Fort Thorne, apparently on their
return to the North, having migrated southwardly the fall previous, and
that they leave on the return of mild weather. In several flocks of
these birds I noticed also the Shore Lark (_Alanda alpestris_), but it
formed a small proportion of the numbers.”
The figures in our plate are about two-thirds of the size of life.