7(> Bird- Nesting 



white, and the purple grey freckles are so thick as to almost 

 conceal the ground colour. This nest also contained an egg 

 of the cowbird. One of my collectors who has visted me this 

 week in Toronto, who lives fifteen miles north of Regina, 

 Assiniboia, informs me that Sprague's pipit, also called Mis- 

 souri skylark, is plentiful around his farm, and can be heard 

 almost anytime early in June, singing and soaring in the sky. 

 During my trip through the North-West I do not remember 

 having heard this bird ; its song is said to be so much like 

 that of the European skylark with which I am so well 

 acquainted that I should not have failed to have noticed it. 

 The eggs of this bird are scarce in collections, but as it is 

 known to breed in Manitoba and Assiniboia, near the homes 

 of some of my collectors, I hope before long to be able to 

 secure a number of clutches of the eggs of this bird. Dr. 

 Coues gives an interesting account of the soaring habits of 

 this species, and they correspond exactly with those of the 

 European skylark, a bird with which I am very familiar, and 

 whose powerful song I have often listened to as I have lain 

 down in some meadow or moorland of heather in the north of 

 England, watching the skylark soaring, and singing all the 

 time, until it becomes a mere speck in the sky, and its song 

 does not cease until it descends to the earth again. Dr. Coues, 

 in writing about the Missouri skylark, speaks of its wonder- 

 ful soaring action, and its inimitable, matchless song during 

 the breeding season. He says : " It is no wonder Audubon 

 grew enthusiastic in describing it. Rising from its nest, or 

 from its grassy bed, this plain-looking little bird, clad in the 

 simplest colours and making but a speck in the boundless ex- 

 panse, mounts straight up on tremulous wings till lost to view 

 in the blue ether, and then sends back to earth a song of glad- 

 ness that seems to come from the sky itself, to cheer the 

 weary, give hope to the disheartened, and turn the most in- 

 different, for the moment at least, from sordid thoughts. No 

 other bird-music in our land compares with the wonderful 

 strains of this songster ; there is something not of earth in 

 the melody coming from above, yet from no visible source. 



