SPR AGUE'S PIPIT 61 



forth the strains that are making him famous. * * * Once only have I 

 observed this species singing his full song on the ground. 



Singing on the ground is evidently seldom indulged in by Sprague's 

 pipit ; most observers have never heard it do so ; but Trautman and Van 

 Tyne (1935) "on several occasions" in Michigan heard this pipit "sing 

 from the ground and once" they "watched it sing from the top of a 

 small telephone pole. These songs, while identical in pattern with the 

 flight songs, were much less loud and clear." 



Field marks. — Sprague's pipit is not easily recognized. Its shyness 

 and its secretive habits when on the ground make it difficult to 

 approach. It has no distinctive and conspicuous field marks except 

 its two pairs of white outer tail feathers, which show only in flight 

 and are shared by some other birds with which it is likely to be 

 associated. It is often associated with vesper sparrows, which have 

 about the same amount of white in the tail; the pipit is a slender 

 bird with a sharp-pointed bill, and it w^alks or runs; whereas the 

 sparrow is a stockier bird, has a short, conical bill, and it hops instead 

 of walking. The horned lark, one of its frequent companions, also 

 walks, but it has less white in the tail, is not so slender, and has con- 

 spicuous black markings on head and breast. The horned lark has 

 a somewhat similar flight song, but, with a good glass, its head and 

 breast markings can be seen. Sprague's pipit closely resembles the 

 American pipit in form and behavior, but it is lighter in coloration 

 and more buffy, less grayish. 



Fall. — After the breeding season is over and the young are strong 

 on the wing, these pipits gather into flocks, sometimes of immense 

 size, mingled with horned larks and longspurs, and drift slowly south- 

 ward to spend the winter close to our southern border, or farther 

 south in Mexico. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Interior of North America from southern Canada to south- 

 ern Mexico. 



Breeding range. — Sprague's pipit breeds north to central Alberta 

 (Edmonton and Athabaska) ; central Saskatchewan (Prince Albert 

 and Quill Lake) ; and southern Manitoba (Aweme, Shoal Lake, and 

 Hillside Beach on southern Lake Winnipeg). East to southeastern 

 Manitoba (Hillside Beach and Winnipeg) ; and western Minnesota 

 (Muskoda and northern Wilkin County). South to central western 

 Minnesota (northern Wilkin County) ; northern South Dakota (Grand 

 River xigency, northern Stanley County, and Harding County) ; 

 and central Montana (Lewistown and the Belt Mountains). West 

 to western Montana east of the Rocky Mountains (Belt Mountains, 

 Great Falls, Teton County, and Browning) ; and west-central Al- 



