ANTHUS LUDOVICIANUS, TITLAKK. 41 



tion. Although Mr. Allen did not actually fiud the nest, there is no 

 question of his having determined that the bird breeds in the mountains 

 of Colorado, for he found young scarcely able to fly, July 20, 1871, on 

 Mount Lincoln, Park County, Colorado, among the snow-fields above 

 timber-liue ; while he also observed the bird in the Wahsatch Mountains, 

 "probably breeding, above timber-line." These are important observa- 

 tions, not only as first authenticating the breeding of the species in the 

 United States, but as affording a striking illustration of how perfectly 

 complementary to each other are increase of latitude and elevation of 

 land in much that pertains to the distribution of plants and animals. 

 In its summer distribution to the northward, the bird reaches the Arctic 

 coast, and is also found in Greenland. 



Of the general habits of the Titlark during the winter, there is no oc- 

 casion to enlarge. Its thoroughly gregarious disposition ; its eminently 

 terrestrial habits; the variety of its food, both animal and vegetable; 

 its timidity, yet its lack of caution ; its buoyant, desultory flight; glid- 

 ing, tremulous gait, accompanied with vibration of the tail, and its quer- 

 ulous voice, are all well known. But with its habits in summer, and 

 particularly Its nesting, we are not so familiar. Audubon is one of the 

 few authors who has given us information on this score. He "found it 

 breeding abundantly on the Labrador coast, on moss-covered rocks, as 

 well as in the deep valleys, but never at any great distance from the sea. 

 The nests were usually placed at the foot of a wall of the rocks, buried 

 in the dark mould, and beautifully formed of fine bent grass, arranged in 

 a circular manner, without any hair or other lining. Both birds incu- 

 bate, sitting so closely, that on several occasions I almost put my loot 

 upon them before they flew. The first nest that I found was on the 29th 

 of June, when tlie thermometer ranged from 51° to 54°. The eggs were 

 six in number, five-eigliths of an inch long and six and one-quarter 

 twelfths in breadth, being rather elongated, though rounded at both 

 ends ; their ground color of a deep reddish-chestnut or reddish-brown, 

 considerably darkened by numerous dots of a deeper reddish-brown and 

 lines of various sizes, especially toward the large end." 



Although I have myself seen Titlarks everywhere I have been, I 

 never found any breeding except in Labrador, as stated in the above 

 reference. It was there the most numerous of the land birds, excei)ting 

 perhaps the White-crowned Sparrow, frequenting open, bare and ex- 

 posed localities, often on tbe rocky and barren islands, almost unten- 

 anted by other species. Here, as elsewhere in maritime localities, the 

 biids are fond of resorting to the sea-shore at low tide, there to ramble 

 in quest of food on the mud and sea-wrack in company with Sand- 

 pipers, and not distantly resembling these birds in their manners. Two 

 nests 1 obtained in July were both placed in a cavity in the ground, 

 about as large as a child's head, on the side of a steep rocky chasm. A 

 flooring of dried grass had been introduced to keep tlie nest from the 

 wet; the nests 'were built upon this, of coarse dried grass loosely ar- 

 ranged, and without lining ; the exterior diameter was about six inches, 

 the interior three inches, with a dci)th of two inches. One nest con- 

 tained five, the other four, eggs, averaging thirteen-sixteenths of an inch 

 long, by nine and one-half sixteenths broad; of a dark chocolate color, 

 indistinctly marked with numerous small spots and streaks of blackish. 

 The parents do not leave the nest until nearly trodden on, then the one 

 that is incubating flutters up with loud cries of distress that soon bring 

 the mate, and the pair hover anxiously over head, at times approaching 

 ■within a few feet, or even alighting close by, all the while crying out in 

 the most beseeching and plaintive manner. I saw no attempt to deceive 



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