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THE BROWN TITLARK. 



Anthus Spinoletta. Bonap. 



PLATE X. Male and Female. 



Although this species is met with in every portion of the United 

 States which I have visited, I have not seen it anywhere during the sum- 

 mer months, or heard of it breeding with us. It is one of the birds that 

 I should call gifted with a double set of habits, for, like a very few 

 others that are strictly named land birds, it occurs not only in the fields in 

 the interior of the country, but also on the borders of rivers, and even on 

 the shores of the Atlantic. 



Its flight is extremely easy, and what I would call of a beautiful and 

 deUcate nature. In other words, these birds pass and repass through the 

 air, performing numberless evolutions, as if it did not cost them the least 

 labour to fly. When in the interior of the country, they resort to the old 

 fields, and the vast prairies, as well as the ploughed lands, seldom in 

 flocks of less than ten or a dozen, and not unfrequently by hundreds. 

 Now, they are seen high, loosely moving in short reiterated undulations, 

 inspecting the ground below ; now, they come sweeping over and close 

 to it, and seem about to alight, when, on the contrary, their ranks close 

 in an instant, they wheel about^ and rise again into the air. These feats 

 are often repeated six or seven times, when at last, satisfied as to their 

 safety, or the abundance of food in the spot, they alight, and immediately 

 run about in quest of food. They run briskly, and as lightly as birds 

 usually called Larks are wont to do, but with this difference, that they 

 suffer their tails to vibrate whenever they stop running. Again, instead 

 of squatting partially down, as true Larks do, to pick up their food, they 

 move their body upon the upper joints of the legs, in the manner of 

 Thrushes and other birds. Another habit seldom found in the Lark ge- 

 nus is that of settling on fences and trees, and walking along them with 

 apparent ease. In fact, the bird, although called a Lark by Wilson and 

 others, belongs to the Pipit or Titlark family. 



Whilst resichng among the meadows and ploughed fields, these birds 

 feed on insects and small seeds, picking up some gravel at the same time. 

 Along the rivers, or on the sea-shores, they are fond of running as neai' 



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