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Update April 06, 2004: added new images of the Bexar County bird, provided by Willie Sekula, at the bottom of the page:
These images of the longspur in southwest Bexar County, Texas, late March/early April 2004, are by Willie Sekula:

Wille, Sheridan Coffey, and I discussed the details of this bird, and noted the following points that suggest this is a Chestnut-collared Longspur Calcarius ornatus:
- primary projection (extent and spacing of primary tips visible beyond the tips of the tertials) is very short, with one tip just beyond the tertials, a medium gap, then two closely-spaced tips. This is precisely the pattern illustrated in the Sibley Guide (and other recent books on Emberizines) for CCLO.
- bill shape and color:- the bill is rather short and thick, with an overall dusky-gray tone and barely a hint of flesh-tone in the base of the maxilla (upper mandible.)
- breast markings:- although there is a suggestion of a few more-sharply-defined marks, on the whole, the visible streaking on the breast is rather light-colored and a bit blurry.

Here are some links to WWW images for reference:-
http://www.monmouth.com/~sutherland/images/alto_smlo.jpg - a vagrant Smith's in the NE from October.

http://www.roysephotos.com/SmithsLongspur.html .

http://www.surfbirds.com/media/gallery_photos/20031025001713.jpg - another vagrant Smith's from October .


http://www.tsuru-bird.net/sparrows/longspur_chestnut-collared_f1.jpg .

http://www.southwestbirders.com/SS_20020107/cclo_004s.jpg.

http://thebirdguide.com/rarebirds/chestnut_longspur_2.jpg.- a vagrant Chestnut-collared in the Oregon from October.

Update April 06, 2004: added new images of the Bexar County bird, provided by Willie Sekula:
NOTE: a very useful reference is the article in BIRDING Vol 35 #5 (Oct 2003) by Sullivan and Kershner.
Also in the images above, note the contrastingly whitish undertail coverts (SMLO is normally a uniform ground color on the entire underparts, or with the undertail coverts slightly more buffy.)
Note the tip of the longest tertial reaching almost to the tip of P5, the buffy (rather than rusty) edgings to the tertials, secondaries, and greater coverts, and the pattern of white in the edge of the tail:- Note that some illustrations of the tail patterns of CCLO fail to properly show that the narrow outer web of R4 has is mostly dark, with a varying amonut of white only at the base (for a correct illistration see Pyle et al's ID Guide to N. Am. Passerines, page 225.) When the tail is closed, only this outer web is visible, hiding any white on the inner web. The extent of white in the tail is age/sex related, with imm. females having the most dark. On the visible tail below, there is a parallel edge but with a slight broadening at the base - this is what the R4 of an imm. female CCLO would look like when the tail is closed:

Note in the images below the blurry, diffuse breast markings, and the buff on the lower throat and in the malars (SMLO is white in these areas):