THE INVITATION. 221 



More recent writers and explorers have added to 

 Audubon's list over three hundred new species, the 

 greater number of which belong to the Northern and 

 Western parts of the Continent. Audubon's obser- 

 vations were confined mainly to the Atlantic and Gulf 

 States and the adjacent islands ; hence the Western 

 or Pacific birds were but little known to him, and are 

 only briefly mentioned in his works. 



It is, by the way, a little remarkable how many of 

 the Western birds seem merely duplicates of the East- 

 ern. Thus, the varied-thrush of the West is our robin, 

 a little differently marked ; and the red-shafted wood- 

 pecker is our golden-wing, or high-hole, colored red 

 instead of yellow. There is also a Western chickadee, 

 a Western chewink, a Western blue-jay, a Western 

 meadow-lark, a Western snow-bird, a Western blue- 

 bird, a Western song-sparrow, Western grouse, quail, 

 hen-hawk, etc., etc. 



One of the most remarkable birds of the West 

 seems to be a species of skylark, met with on the 

 plains of Dakota, which mounts to the height of three 

 or four hundred feet, and showers down its ecstatic 

 notes. It is evidently akin to several of our Eastern 

 species. A correspondent, writing to me from the 

 country one September, says, " I have observed re- 

 cently a new species of bird here. They alight upon 

 the buildings and fences as well as upon the ground. 

 They are walkers." In a few days he obtained one, and 

 sent me the skin. It proved to be what I had antici- 



