from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Any of several birds, especially of the genus Calcarius of the northern United States, Canada, and the Arctic, having brownish plumage and long-clawed hind toes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A specific type of bird, of the genus Calcarius; it has a long claw on the hind toe of each foot.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. Any one of several species of fringilline birds of the genus Calcarius (or Plectrophanes), and allied genera. The Lapland longspur (Calcarius Lapponicus), the chestnut-colored longspur (Calcarius ornatus), and other species, inhabit the United States.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In ornithology, a bird of the genus Centrophanes (or Calcarius): same as lark-bunting, 1.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Two bird species are unique to the shortgrass prairies east of the Rockies, the mountain plover and McCown's longspur.
Lap-longspur, Snowbird, Shorelarks, and Pipits are here soaring and singing, or among the barren rocks are Ptarmigan in garments that are painted in the patterns of their rocks.
For recordings of bird songs, call 612-673-7800, and when prompted press the following four-digit numbers: 1239 blue grosbeak 1240 blue jay 1241 green heron 1242 Lapland longspur
Paging through the guide books, Lanny, Pete and I decided that the mystery bird was a Lapland longspur.