5S BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL RTUSEUM 



Food. — ^Very little seems to have been published on the food of 

 Sprague's pipit. Dr, Gabrielson (1924) examined 11 stomachs and 

 found that 2 were filled with seeds of spurge and goatweed; 6 con- 

 tained grasshoppers and crickets, 75 percent; and the remainder of 

 the food consisted of Hymenoptera, mostly ants, Coleoptera, Hemip- 

 tera, and caterpillars. Mrs. Nice (1931) mentions weevils, stink bugs, 

 and false chinch bugs. 



During a period of 8 hours Mr. Harris (1933) saw the parent bird 

 make 91 trips to the nest with food for the young. In 21 cases the 

 food was not identified; of the remaining 70 trips, 7 were made with 

 crickets, 4 with moths, and 59 with grasshoppers. "Crickets and 

 moths were brought one at a time, while grasshoppers were brought 

 at an average rate of 1.58 per trip." 



Behavior. — Sprague's pipit is a fascinating but very elusive bird. 

 We overlooked it in North Dakota and during our first season in 

 Saskatchew^an, probably because we did not Iniow where and how 

 to look for it or realize the difficulty of seeing or even hearing it. 

 But, on the plains of southwestern Saskatchewan, thanks to Dr. 

 Bishop's keen ears, we found it really quite common in 1906, though 

 more frequently heard than seen. The males spend much of their 

 time way up in the sky, almost out of sight; it is only occasionally 

 that one can be seen, as a mere speck against some white cloud ; against 

 the blue sky it is almost invisible. When it comes down to the ground, 

 as it does at long intervals, it is very shy and difficult to approach, 

 flying off to a great distance in long, bounding, erratic flights. We 

 succeeded in collecting very few birds, although we spent considerable 

 time in fruitless chasing. I secured only one, shot on the wing at 

 long range. 



Dr. Koberts (1932) says of its behavior: 



Sprague's Pipit is a bird that may easily be overlooked. It should be looked 

 for high overhead rather thau on the ground. In the nesting-season the charac- 

 teristic song of the male, floating down from far up in the sky, is the surest 

 indication of its presence. The performer may not be easy to locate, but the 

 song can belong to no other bird. On the groimd it disappears completely in 

 the prairie grass, walks or runs nimbly away without showing itself and, if 

 flushed, flies quickly off, appearing much like a Vesper Sparrow. When it 

 springs into the air and mounts higher and higher in ascending circles to deliver 

 its nuptial song and then plunges directly to earth again, it may be mistaken 

 for a Horned Lark by the casual observer. The performance is just the same, 

 but the bird usually goes higher, stays up much longer, and the song is different. 

 A good glass may show the large amount of white in the tail and the absence 

 of black markings on the head and breast. If a glimpse be had of the bird 

 after it alights on the ground, it will be seen to walk in the manner of the 

 Horned Lark but with a more dainty, lighter stop. The ordinary flight of the 

 Pipit is sharply undulatory and erratic, a series of dips and upward 

 springs, now this way and now that. When startled from the grass it goes 

 off in this manner and at the end of the flight turns suddenly backward in its 



