THE PERCHING BIRDS. 



CHAPTER II. 



f 

 THE PERCHING BIRDS. (Continued.) 



IN the Titlark we have one of those northern birds 

 that enter the United States in autumn and remain 

 until spring, and often until the weather is quite warm, 

 or nearly the first of May. As a winter bird they 

 would be a grand success if they had any music in 

 their souls, but they have not, or, having it, let not 

 the outside world have any intimation of the fact. 

 A whole flock of these birds, however, tripping over 

 the frost-bitten fields, or drifting before the wind when 

 a gale sweeps across the meadows, is really a very 

 pretty sight. I have often found them associated 

 with another and far prettier so-called "lark," of 

 which more hereafter. 



In the interior plains of North America, breeding 

 from Central Dakota north to the Saskatchewan, 

 south, in winter, over southern plains to Southern 

 Mexico, is found Sprague's Pipit, which is much the 

 same bird as our eastern species in its habits. 



We are now brought to consider a group of North 

 American birds which have much in common, and 

 yet present more variations from a common type 

 than is usual ; these little birds, and they are all small, 

 are known popularly as Warblers. I say " known 

 popularly," but it is a rather remarkable fact that the 

 great mass of our people do not yet recognize them 



