598 HISTORY OF THE 



and penetration are truly wonderful; they are neither loud nor 

 strong, yet the whole air seems filled with the tender strains, 

 and delightful melody continues long unbroken. The song is 

 only heard for a brief period in the summer, ceasing when the 

 inspiration of the love season is over, and it is only uttered when 

 the birds are soaring. 



"It is not a little singular that the Skylark (Sprague's Pipit) 

 should have so long continued to be rare in collections, since it 

 is very abundant in the extensive region which it inhabits. In 

 August, after all the broods are on wing, and through Septem. 

 ber, I have seen it in considerable flocks: and often, when riding 

 along the prairie road, numbers would fly up on my approach, 

 from the ruts ahead, where they were feeding, to settle again at 

 a little distance farther on. These wheel tracks, where the 

 grass was worn away, seemed to be their favorite resorts, where 

 they could run with the greatest ease, and perhaps gather food 

 less easily discovered in the thick grass. They tripped along 

 the tracks with swift and dainty steps, never hopping, and con- 

 tinually vibrated the tail, just like our common Titlark (Amer- 

 ican Pipit). They are usually associated at such times with 

 numbers of Chestnut-collared Longspurs, which seemed to fancy 

 the same places, and with a few of Baird's Sparrows. These 

 were the only circumstances under which the Larks could be 

 procured without the great quickness and dexterity required to 

 take them on the wing, for the moment they alight in the grass 

 of the prairie, be it scanty or only a few inches high, they are 

 lost to view, their speckled gray colors blending completely with 

 the herbage. 



"On making a camp at Turtle Mountain, a pair of Larks rose 

 from the spot where my tent was pitched, and circled about in 

 such evident painful agitation, that I knew they had a nest 

 somewhere near by. I watched them for a long while, but they 

 would not re-alight to give me any clue to its whereabouts; and 

 though I made careful search for the nest at intervals for several 

 days, during which time I frequently saw the same pair, I was 

 unsuccessful. No nests are harder to find than those of prairie 

 birds, for there is nothing to guide one, and they are not often 



