42 NEOCORYS SPEAGUEI, SKYLARK. 



by feigning lameness, but tbe birds often follow one wbo bas disturbed 

 them for some distance. On sucb occasions several pairs nesting near 

 each otlier are often aroused, and join their cries with those of the 

 aliiicted parents. 



^^EOCORYS SPRAGUEI, (And.) Scl. 



Missouri Skylark. 



AJaucla spragnei, AuD., B. Am. vii, 1843, 335, pi. 488. 



Aqrodoma spraguei. Bd., Stanbury's Rep. 1852, 329.— Bp., C. Rend, xxxviii, 1856, 65. 



Ncocortia .spragiici, Scl., Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857, 5.— Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 234.— Black., Ibis, 



18()2, 4.-COUES, Key, 1872, 91. 

 Anthus fiprac/uei, Bd., Rev. 1864, 155. 

 Olocoris sprangeri, Bp., Consp. Av. i, 1850, 246. 



Mai. — Region of tbe Upper Missouri and Sasketchewau. East to the Red River. 



This species is one of the very few characteristic birds of the region 

 particularly treated of in the present work ; in fact, it seems chiefly 

 confined to the Upper Missouri. It is still extremely rare in collections ; 

 the type specimen, taken by Audubon at Fort Union, June 19, 1843, 

 long remained unique, and to the present day I have seen but one other, 

 taken by Captain Blackiston on the Sasketchewau (where he found the 

 species not uncommon), and now in the Smithsonian collection, where 

 the type is also preserved. But since, according to Audubon's account, 

 the bird appears to be abundant, I rest in hopes of seeing it alive before 

 1 leave the Missouri. The original describer says that the nest is sunken 

 in the ground, built entirely of fine grasses, circularly arranged, with- 

 out lining; and that the eggs are usually four or five in uuinber, seven- 

 eighths long by five-eighths broad, dotted minutely all over, so as to bo 

 of a general purplish-gray hue. He found young in small loose Hocks 

 of eig'ht to a dozen, before he left Fort Union, on the 10th of August. 

 He represents manners apparently much in accordance with those as- 

 cribed to the Euroi)ean Skylark: ''On several occasions my friend, EtS- 

 ward Harris, sought for these birds on the ground, deceived by the 

 sound of th(^ir music, appearing as if issuing from the prairies, which 

 they constantly inhabit; and after having traveled to many distant 

 places on the prairie, we at last looked upward, and there saw several 

 of these beautiful creatures singing in a continuous manner, aiul soaring 

 at such an elevation as to render them more or less difficult to discover 

 with the eye, and at times some of them actually disappearing from our 

 sight in tiie clear thin air of that country. On the ground they run 

 prettily, sometimes squatting to observe the movements of the intruder, 

 and at times erecting their body fronting the pursuer. * * * * On 

 first rising from the ground they fly in so deep and undulating a manner 

 as to almost preclude their being shot on the wing ; and this they con- 

 tinue to do, forming circles increasing in extent until about one hundred 

 yards high, when they begin to sing, and continue to do so for fifteen or 

 twenty minutes at a time, and then suddenly closing their wings, they 

 glide "to the prairie. * * * * Sometimes when rising from the 

 ground, as if abont to sing, for some forty or filty yards, they suddenly 

 pitch downward, alight, and run or squat, as already mentioned." 



Xovemhcr, 1873. — Since I penned the foregoing, at Fort Randall, last 

 year, my wishes have been gratified in the most satisfactory manner ; 

 for during my connection, the past summer, with the Northern Bound- 

 ary Commission, to results of which I may be permitted to refer in this 

 connection, I became jicrfectly familiar with the Missouri Skylark. It is 

 one of the most abundant and characteristic birds of all the region 



