10 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY. 



few miles back from the river, and also as we approached the salt- 

 marshes near the coast. Up the river from Brownsville we observed 

 very few, as the country is more thickly wooded, and consequently un- 

 suited to the habits of the Shore Lark. I obtained no eggs, although 

 it undoubtedly breeds near the coast at least as far north as Galveston. 

 I saw no difference in its habits from those of the Korth. I recognized 

 the bird, before I shot it, by its peculiar flight and song. It differs from 

 the typical alpestris in being smaller and brighter in color. 

 108— 9 —6.50 X 11.50 X 3.62 x 2.38. Mar. 29, Brownsville. 



MOTACILLID^. 



Anthus (Neocorys) spraguit, {Aud.) Scl. — Missouri SJcylarlc. 



South of Galveston, just without the city limits, are lagoons and salt- 

 marshes. The low ridges dividing them are covered sparsely with 

 grass, and, as in other sandy tracts, all of the tall grass grows in clumps, 

 or hummocks. From among these one day I started a large, scattered 

 flock of birds. I recognized among them Plectrophanes maceowni, Mc- 

 Cowu's Bunting, from having shot it the day before. By chance my eye 

 caught sight of a bird darting into a hummock. I flushed and shot it. 

 It was in soiled plumage, and gave me more study than any other bird 

 of the collection before I ascertained that it was the Missouri Skylark. 

 Others were seen at this time, but not obtained. I think I never saw 

 birds so difficult to distinguish aud shoot, although I was sure they were 

 somewhere about under my very eyes. Of their habits I could see little 

 or nothing. I think this bird has not before been noticed so far south.* 



5—6.50 X 11.00 X 3.38 x 2.62. Mar. 1, Galveston. 



SYLYICOLID^. 



Parula AMERICANA, (i.) Bp. — Blue Yellow-hacked Warhler. 



The single specimen of this bird seen was under very peculiar circum- 

 stances. We came from Corpus Ohristi to Point Isabel in a flat-bottomed 

 oyster-boat of four tons. W hen almost on the bar at Brazos de Santiago, 

 the darkness and a storm prevented our passing over, and duriug the 

 night we drifted out into the Gulf. The morning of March 20th found 

 us twenty-five or thirty miles out, with the sea still heavily rolling, but 

 the sky and air most beautiful. Hoisting all sail to catch the gentle 

 breeze, we made for port. Just before we sighted land, imagine our 

 surprise and joy to see a little Blue Yellow-backed Warbler on our 

 mast. It soon flew down to the sail, and thence to the deck, where, 



*[ Interesting on account of the locality, which is the southernmost on record. The 

 specimen has a dull look, as if the plumage were soiled from the nature of the ground 

 or herbage where it was shot. In the North, where the bird is very common in some 

 localities, it mixes freely, not only with P. maceowni, as here witnessed by Mr. Sennett, 

 but also with P. ornatus and with Passerculus bairdi. — E. C] 



