200 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



ANTHUS LUDOVICIANUS. — XicA*. 



The Tit-lark. 



Alauda Luchviciana, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 793. 



Anthns Ludovicianus, Licht. Verz. (1823), 37, No. 421. Aud. Syn. (1839), 94. 

 Alauda rufa, Wilson. Am. Cm., V. (1812) 89. 



Anthus spinoletta, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1832) 408, V. (1839), 449. Nutt. 

 Man., L (1832)450. 



Anthus pijjiens, Audubon. Cm. Biog., I. (1832) 408, V. (1839) 449. 



Description. 



(Female, in spring.) Above olive-brown, each feather slightly darker towards 

 the central portion ; beneath pale dull-buff, or yellowish-brown, with a maxillary 

 series of dark-brown spots and streaks across the breast and along sides; ring 

 round the eye, and superciliary stripe yellowish; central tail feathers like the back, 

 others dark blackish-brown, the external one white, except at the base within, a 

 white spot at the end of the second ; primaries edged with whitish, other quills with 

 pale-brownish. 



Length, six and fifty one-hundredths inches; wing, three and forty-five one- 

 hundredths inches ; tail, two and ninety-five one-hundredths inches. 



Ilab. — North America generally. Greenland (Keinhardt). Accidental in Eu- 

 rope. 



THIS bird is a not uncommon fall and spring visitor in 

 New England; and, in the southern parts of these 

 States, in mild seasons, it remains through the entire winter. 

 It is most frequently found in the neighborhood of the sea- 

 coast or its large marshes, and in large tracts of level, dry, 

 weedy pastures and fields. 



While with us, it flies in loose, detached flocks, in a jerk- 

 ing, irregular sort of flight, uttering occasionally its feeble, 

 lisping queet, queet. It seems always busily employed, 

 either on the beach, in gathering the small shell-fish and 

 animalcules thrown up by the tide, or, in pastures and 

 stubble-fields, in gleaning the seeds of weeds and grasses : 

 it also feeds upon spiders and such insects as it is able to 

 find in the dead grass and weeds. 



As this species breeds in the most northern parts of the 

 continent, I am unable to give any account of its breeding 

 habits ; and, having no egg in my collection, I can give 

 no description of it here. Nuttall says the " nest is built 

 in the fissures of cliffs, is composed of dry grass and a 



