44 NESTS AND EGGS OF N. A. BIRDS. 



purplish chocolate-brown, with occasional darker lines about the 

 larger end. In others the markings are bolder and larger and of 

 brighter hues." — Baird, Br.ewer^and Ridgway's N. A. Birds, 

 vol. I, pp. 171, 172, 173. 



72. ANTHUS PRATENSIS, 



EUROPEAN TITLABK. 



This European species claims a place in the North American 

 fauna, on the ground of a single specimen having been found in 

 Greenland, in 1845, ^"^ °^6 ^^ St. Michael's, Norton Sound. 



Nest is built on the ground, generally among the grass. 



Eggs are of a reddish-brown color mottled over with darker 

 shades of the same. 



73. NEOCORYS SPRAGUEI. 



SPRAGUE'S TITLARK. 



"Captain Blakiston (iibis, V. 61) found this Skylark common on 

 the prairies of the Saskatchewan during the breeding-season. -■•*"-•■ 

 He also observed these birds in northern Minnesota, May 4, 1859. 

 A nest of this bird was built on the ground and placed in a hol- 

 low. It was made of fine grasses interwoven into a circular form, 

 but without any lining. 



The eggs were four or five in number, an obloag-ovai in shape, 

 much pointed at one end, and measuring .87 of an inch in length 

 by .63 in breadth. Their ground-color was a dull white, so 

 minutely dotted with a grayisli-purple as to give the whole egg a 

 homogeneous appearance as of that uniform color, — Baird, 

 Brewer and Ridgway's N. A. Birds, vol. i, p. 176. 



FAMILY Mniotiltidee.— ^A^ar]^lers. 



74. MNIOTILTA VARIA. 



BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPER. 



'*A species confined to the Eastern Province, reaching its western 

 limit on the confines of the Missouri region and in Arkansas. *** 

 Audubon states that it breeds in holes in trees, but such appears 

 not to be its habit. Nuttall describes a nest "niched in the 



