558 



BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



West, however, the case is reversed, the altitudes at which it nestles 

 being complementary to the latitude it elsewhere seeks for the same 

 purpose. It nests abundantly in the Rocky Mountains, above timber- 

 line, along with the Ptarmigan, as first determined by Mr. J. A. Allen, 

 and subsequently very fully set forth by Mr. T. M. Trippe, at pp. 231, 

 232, of the " Birds of the Northwest ". Its general habits as observed in 

 the West furnish no occasion for special comment. 



List of specimens. 



NEOOORYS SPRAGIJII, (And.) Scl. 



Missouri Skylark. 



This very interesting bird, which in this coimtry represents the cele- 

 brated Skylark of Europe, was discovered by Audubon in 1843, during 

 his trip to the Upper Missouri. His type specimen, secured at Fort 

 Union, June 19, is still preserved in the National Museum, having been 

 among the many rare or unique specimens presented by him many years 

 ago to Professor Baird. For about twenty years, no other specimens 

 were forthcoming, and little, if anything more, was heard of the bird until 

 an English officer, Captain Blakiston, met with it in considerable numbers 

 in the Saskatchewan region, and contributed an account of its habits, as 

 observed by him, to the "Ibis", then, as now, one of the very few journals 

 devoted to ornithology. One of his specimens, like Audubon's original, 

 reached the Smithsonian Institution, and remained until recently the 

 only duplicate known to exist in any American collection. During my 

 connection with the Boundary Commission I passed the season of 1873 

 in the very centre of abundance of the species, and collected over fifty 

 specimens, all of which reached Washington safely and in good con- 

 dition. Many more could have been secured, but I considered this 

 number sufficient, not only for my own study of the species, but for distri- 

 bution among other ornithologists, and various public collections in this 

 country and Europe. During the same summer, my friend J. A. Allen, 

 who was similarly engaged in field-work south of rae, in the Yellowstone 

 region, in connection with an engineering expedition then in progress, 

 also became familiar with the bird, collected many specimens, and had 

 the good fortune to discover the nest and eggs. These latter, now in 

 the National Museum, are the only specimens, so far as I know, which 

 have come under the notice of naturalists since Audubon first discov- 



