FAM. VI. WAGTAILS, PIPITS 



i 



American Pipit 



Length, 6| ; wing, 3| (3^-3|); tail, 2f ; tarsus, |; culmen, I. North 

 America ; breeding in the subarctic regions and higlier mountains and 

 wintering in the Gulf 

 States to Central Amer- 

 ica. 



2. Sprague's Pipit 

 (700. Anthns sj)rd.- 

 gueii). — A bird in 

 appearance very 

 much like the last, 

 but with the colors 

 brighter and the 

 markings more dis- 

 tinct. This species 

 has the tarsus 

 shorter than the hind toe and claw, while the preceding has it 

 as long, sometimes longer. This has a tail always less than 2|, 

 the other greater, sometimes 3 long. While the two are so simi- 

 lar in form, size, and colors, they are wonderfully different in 

 power of song. This is a sky-singing bird, like the skylark 

 of Europe. Dr. Coues says : " No other bird music heard in 

 our land compares with the wonderful strains of this songster ; 

 there is something not of earth in the melody, coming from 

 above, yet from no visible source ; . . . the whole air seems 

 filled with the tender strains." (Missouri Skylark.) 



Length, 6i ; wing, 3| (3-3|); tail, 2^ ; tarsus, |; culmen, \. Interior 

 plains of North America. Once recorded east of the Mississiijpi (in South 

 Carolina). 



FAMILY VII. WOOD WARBLERS (MNIOTILTID.E) 



A family (100 species) of exclusively American brightly 

 colored, small birds of woodlands and thickets. Their habits 

 in gathering their insect prey vary greatly: some, like the 

 vireos, search carefully for hidden insects, resting or crawling 

 on leaf, on bark, or in flower ; others flit from twig to twig, 

 gathering the exposed insects, while still others are like the 

 flycatchers, capturing most of their prey w^hile on the wing. 



