50 BROWN LARK. 



the edge of the water as possible, and searching among the drifted leaves 

 and weeds for such insects as are usually found there. The vibratory 

 motion of their tail is now more perceptible, being quicker. Their feeble 

 notes are also frequently uttered. When shot along the shores, their 

 stomachs have been found filled with fragments of minute shells, as well 

 as small shrimps, and other garbage. When raised by the report of a 

 gun, they rise high, and sometimes fly to a considerable distance ; but 

 you may expect their return to the same spot, if you keep yourself con- 

 cealed for a few minutes. They are expert fly-catchers, inasmuch as 

 they leap from the ground, and follow insects on the wing for several 

 feet with avidity. The company of cattle is agreeable to them, so much 

 so, that they walk almost under them in quest of insects. When in fields, 

 the Brown Titlarks are often seen mixed with a few other birds known 

 by the name of Winter Larks, the habits of which I shall detail in my 

 next volume. 



The species now under consideration reaches Louisiana about the 

 middle of October, and leaves it in the beginning of March. I caught 

 some of these birds on my passage from France to the United States, on 

 the Great Newfoundland Banks. They came on board wearied, and so 

 hungry that the crumbs of biscuit thrown to them were picked up with 

 the greatest activity. I am inclined to consider the Brown Titlark 

 identical with the Water Pipit of Europe. 



Anthus Spinoletta, Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 90. 



Alauda Spinoletta, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 288. 



Pipit spioncelle, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. Part i. p. 205. 



Brown Lark, Alauda rufa, Wilson, Amer. Ornith. vol. v. p. 99. PI. 42. fig. 4. 



Adult Male. Plate X. Fig. 1. 



Bill straight, subulate, depressed at the base, acute, the edges 

 slightly inflected at the middle, the gap not reaching to beneath the 

 eyes ; upper mandible keeled at the base, afterwards rounded, slightly 

 notched and declinate at the tip. Nostrils basal, oval, half closed above 

 by a membrane. Head smaU. Neck slender. Body slender. Feet 

 longish, slender ; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with longish scu- 

 tella, longer than the middle toe ; toes scutellate above, granulated be- 

 neath ; inner toe free ; hind toe with a very long, almost straight 

 claw, which, together with the rest, is slender, compressed and acute 



