ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS. 93 



he is a large, handsome bird, with a con- 

 spicuous yellow breast, his song consists 

 merely of a long, wavering whistle, which 

 is always uttered from the ground, and 

 which bears not the slightest resemblance 

 to the copious notes of the skylark, which 

 he showers down upon us from far up in 

 the sky. The only true lark to be found 

 in these parts is the shore-lark, which with 

 us fs only a winter bird of passage, and 

 which, even in its summer haunts in the 

 far North, is said to be possessed of rather 

 inferior musical gifts. Recently, however, 

 in the vicinity of the Yellowstone Park, a 

 new lark, called Sprague's lark, has been 

 discovered, whose song is said to be 

 unequalled by his celebrated European 

 cousin. I saw the other day, in a New 

 York newspaper, that the skylark has re- 

 cently been introduced into some parts of 

 New York State with complete success. 

 What a substitute this bird would have 

 been for the English sparrow! 



Our beautiful purple-martin has no near 

 congener in the European avifauna, our 



