560 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



feathers of the upper parts; outermost two pairs of tail-feathers for the 

 most part white, and the third feather usually also with a touch of white 

 near the end ; the middle pair colored like the back. During the wear 

 of the feathers in summer, the bird becomes darker on the upper parts, 

 the grayish-white edgings of the feathers narrower and sharper, and the 

 streaks on the breast become fainter. After the fall moult, the general 

 colors become purer and brighter, with stronger variegation on the 

 upper parts and a ruddier brown wash on the lower. But these varia- 

 tions, however obvious to the ornithologist's eye, do not prevent ready 

 recognition of the species. The bird bears some little resemblance to 

 the common Titlark, its general form being much the same ; but the 

 latter never shows the decidedly variegated state of plumage which 

 renders the present species unmistakable. 



If I am not mistaken, the range of the Missouri Skylark extends into 

 Minnesota, and I have seen a record to that effect; but I cannot at this 

 moment recall the reference or lay my hand on the article. I did not 

 see the bird in the immediate vicinity of the Red Eiver, and do not think 

 I should have overlooked it had any individuals been breeding about 

 Pembina, where I was every day in the field for more than a month 

 collecting very assiduously. Passing the low range of the Pembina 

 Mountains, however, I at once entered the prairie region, where it was 

 breeding in great numbers, in company with Baird's and the Chestnut- 

 collared Buntings. The first one 1 shot, July 14, was a bird of the year, 

 already full-grown and on wing, and as I found scarcely fledged young 

 at least a month later, I judge that, like the Uremophila, the bird raises 

 two broods a year. Travelling westward to and beyond the second 

 crossing of the Mouse River, no day passed that I did not see numbers 

 of the birds; and at some of our camps, notably that at the first cross- 

 ing of the Mouse River, they were so numerous that the air seemed full 

 of them; young ones were caught by hand in the camp, and many might 

 have been shot without stirring from my tent, as they hovered overhead 

 on tremulous wings, uttering continuously their sharp querulous cry. 

 They continued abundant through the greater part of September, in 

 which month the renewal of the plumage is completed, and some still 

 remained on the ground until October. Exactly when they migrate, 

 however, and where they go to, or when they return, are equally un- 

 known to me, — not the least singular point in the bird's history is the 

 success with which it has eluded observation during the winter months. 

 It is not to be supposed that so delicate a bird is capable of enduring 

 the rigors of winter in this inclement region; and yet, so far as I know, 

 no one has found it in winter, at which season it surely ought one would 

 suppose, to be generally distributed in more southerly portions of the 

 West.* 



On reaching Fort Buford the following season, I naturally expected 



* A specimen was lately taken at Galvefeton, Tex., in March, by Mr. George B. Ben- 

 nett. See this Bulletin, this Vol., No. 1, p. 10. 



