A couple of key features: when it flushes from underfoot it shows a great
deal of white on the outer tail feathers, sort of junco like but moreso.
Not at all like Lapland Longspurs in my experience and likely ruling out
Smith's also. In addition the white is more extensive at the base than
toward the tip of the tail, but it doesn't show the white all across the
base, which presumably would be the case with a McCown's. It's a
longspur by virtue of its behavior as well as general appearance. It
flattens its body quite dramatically as it creeps through the grass. It
also called at least twice for me, giving a very distinctive
Chestnut-collared chirrup note, quite unlike the rattles typical of the
other three. The bill shape seemed "typical" to me, that is, given that
most longspurs I've seen have been Lapland's it was like a Lapland, not
thinner like a Smith's nor swollen at the base and relative larger like a
McCown's. It is also quite small compared to Laplands, which also sets
it apart from McCown's and Smith's which are more comparable in body size
to Laplands.

Gene Hunn.

On Thu, 7 Dec 1995, James Lady wrote:

> I have two questions. First, a stupid question:
>
> 1.) How do "we" know that this is a CCLS? I ask not because I doubt
> that it is, but because I'm interested in knowing. Peterson says the
> best field mark is the tail pattern - is that how this bird was identified?
>
> 2.) Is it still there, and if I wanted to find it tomorrow, where
> would be the best place to look, and when?
>
> Jim "still having trouble telling one little brown bird from another" Lady
> Center for Quantitative Science
> University of Washington
> jlady at u.washington.edu
>
>