52 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



DISTRIBUTION ■" 



Breeding range. — North Scandinavia, north Finland, north Russia 

 (Archangel government), Kolgnev, Waigatz and Novaya Zemlya, 

 and across Siberia to Kamchatka, but not the Tchuktche Peninsula. 



'Winter range. — Africa south to Lake Chad and Lagos in the west, 

 but principally east Africa, south to Kenya and northern Tanganyika ; 

 southern Asia, including northwest India, Assam, Burma, the Indo- 

 Chinese countries, South China, and a few even to the Malay islands. 



Spring migration. — Leaves Kenya and Uganda from end of March 

 to third week April (latest date April 19). Passage in Egypt from 

 late March till at least April 18 and a few till late in the month (ex- 

 ceptionally late date May 6), and at the mouth of the Yangtse, China, 

 from beginning of April to mid-May. Arrival recorded: Vadso, 

 northern Norway, June 2 ; Murman coast, May 20-27 ; Arctic Circle in 

 Yenisei Valley, June 6. Arrival on western shore of Taimyr Strait 

 on April 18 (Pleske, 1928) presumably abnormal. 



Fall migration. — Departure recorded from Golchika at the mouth 

 of the Yenisei, August 15. Passage at mouth of the Yangtse in Octo- 

 ber. First arrivals noted: Egypt, October 23; Sudan (Darfur) 

 October 25. Early date : Nairobi, Kenya, August 28. 



ANTHUS SPRAGUEI (Audubon) 



SPRAGUE'S PIPIT 



HABITS 



Sprague's pipit, or the Missouri skylark, was discovered by Audubon 

 on the Upper Missouri and named for one of his companions, Isaac 

 Sprague, who shot the first specimen near Fort Union on June 19, 

 1843. Audubon (1844) described and figured it near the end of his 

 great work, and remarks: "On several occasions my friend Edward 

 Harris sought for these birds on the ground, deceived by the sound of 

 their music, appearing as if issuing from the prairies which they 

 constantly inhabit; and after having travelled to many distant places 

 on the prairie, we at last looked upwards, and there saw several of these 

 beautiful creatures singing in a continuous manner, and 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 the clear thin air of that country." 



Audubon's type specimen remained unique until Captain Blakiston, 

 16 years later, found this species to be quite common on the plains of 

 Saskatchewan and published an account of it in The Ibis for 1863. 

 One of his specimens and Audubon's type were deposited in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. These two specimens were the only ones known to 

 Dr. Coues (1874) until he discovered it while on the survey of the in- 



