WAGTAILS. 43 



The eggs have a bluish-white ground, thickly sprinkled with 

 fine dottings, which are most usually of a blackish-brown color, 

 sometimes ashy-gray or reddish-brown. 



70. BUDYTES FLAVA. 



YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



"This European species finds a place in the fauna of 

 North America, as a bird of Alaska, where specimens have been 

 obtained and where it is, at least an occasional visitant. Abund- 

 ant species in France. Nests on the ground. Eggs, of a brown- 

 ish-yellow on a reddish-white ground, profusely covered with fine 

 dots of reddish-gray, which are more or less confluent. A few zig- 

 zag lines of dark-brown or black are found on the larger end. 



71. ANTHUS LUDOVICIANUS. 



AMERICAN TITLARK. 



The American Titlark ''is one of the most extensively distribut- 

 ed of all our North American birds, being found in immense num- 

 bers over the whole length and breadth of North America. **"* 



All the nests of this lark that I have seen are remarkable for 

 the thickness of their walls, and the strength, compactness, and elab- 

 orate care with which the materials are put together, particularly 

 for nests built on the ground. They are well suited to protect 

 their contents from the cold, damp ground on which they are 

 placed, and their upper portions are composed of stout vegetable 

 stems, lichens, and grasses strongly interwoven, and forming a 

 strong rim around the upper part of the nest. 



Dr. Coues describes their eggs as of a dark chocolate-color, in- 

 distinctly marked with numerous small lines and streaks of black. 

 Audubon describes ihem as having a ground-color of a deep red- 

 dish-chestnut, darkened by numerous dots of deeper reddish- 

 brown and lines of various sizes, especially toward the larger end. 

 Those in my possession, received from Labrador by Thienemann, 

 measure from .75 to .78 of an inch in length, and from .59 to .62 in 

 breadth, and have a light-brown or clay-colored ground, so thickly 

 covered with spots as to be almost concealed. These spots are of 



