146 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



These birds reach Labrador early iu June, when the male birds are very 

 pugnacious, and engage i'requently in very singular fights, in which often 

 several others besides the first parties join, fluttering, biting, and tumbling 

 over in the manner of the European House Sparrow. The male is described 

 as singing sweetly while on the wing, but its song is comparatively short. It 

 ^\■ill also sing while on the ground, but less frequently, and witii less fulness, 

 lis call-note is quite mellow, and is at times so altered, iu a ventriloquial 

 manner, as to seem like tliat of another bird. As soon as the young are 

 liatchi'd their song ceases. It is said to feed on grass-seeds, the blossoms 

 of small })lants, and ins(!cts, often catching the latter on the wing, and 

 following them to a considerable distance. It also gathers minute crusta- 

 ceans on the sea-shore. 



Mr. Piidgway found this species abundant over the arid wastes of the inte- 

 rior, and, in many localities, it was almost the only bird to be found. In its 

 habits he could obser\e no differences between this bird and the aljicsiris. 

 He met with their nests and eggs in the Truckee Eeservation, June 3. The 

 nest was embedded in the hard, grassy ground, beneath a small scraggy sage- 

 bush, on the mesa, between the river and the mountains. 



JNIr. .J. K. Lor<l mentions that, having encamped at Cedar Springs on the 

 Great Plains of the Columbia, where the small stream was the only water 

 within a long distance, he became interested in watching the movements of 

 these Larks. As evening approached they came boldly in among the mules 

 and men, intense thirst overcoming all sense of fear. He found these hand- 

 some little birds very plentiful throughout British Columbia. They were 

 nesting very early on those sandy plains, even before the snow had left the 

 ground. He saw young fledglings early in May. 



A single specimen of this species was taken at Godhaab, Greenland, in 

 October, 1835. 



Eggs from Labrador are much larger in size than those from Wisconsin. 

 Two eggs from the first, one obtained by Mr. Thienemann, the other by Mr. 

 George Peck, of Burlington, Vt., measure .93 and .94 of an inch in length by 

 .71 in breadth ; while some from tlie West are only .83 in length and .63 

 in breadth, their greatest length being .90, and their largest breadth .69 of 

 an inch. In their ground-color and markings, eggs from both localities vary 

 about alike. The ground-cuhjr varies from a purplish-white to a dark gTay, 

 while tbe spots are in some a brownish-lavender, in others a brown, and, 

 (^uite frequently, an olive-brown. In some they are in larger, scattered 

 blotches ; while in others they are in very fine minute dots so thickly and so 

 uniformly diffused as almost to conceal the ground. 



