SONG-BIRDS. Pipit 



should either go upon your search at high tide in a duck 

 boat, or else at very low water, wearing seven-league boots. 

 I could relate an amusing tale of an ardent female wearing 

 rubber boots on the bird-quest, who, approaching the reeds 

 from the land side, on seeing one of the coveted nests a 

 little beyond, lost her head completely, and, forgetting in 

 her enthusiasm to pick her way from hummock to hummock, 

 straightway found herself in two feet of hidden water, and, 

 when she finally extricated herself, the boots were left 

 behind as a tribute to the tenacity of the mud, and their 

 own generous size. 



FAMILY MOTACTLLIDJE : WAGTAILS; PIPITS. 



American Pipit, Titlark : Anthus pensilvanicus. 



Brown Lark. 



Length: 6.25-6.75 inches. 



Male and Female: Above dark olive-brown. Tail and wings brown- 

 black, the tail shorter than the wings, several outer tail feathers 

 partly or wholly white. White eye ring and line over eye. 

 Underneath whitish with washes of various shades of brown. 

 Bill dark ; feet brown. 



Song : A hesitating querulous note. 



Season : Abundant on salt marshes in migrations, April, May, Oc- 

 tober, and November. 



Breeds: Only in high latitudes, sub- Arctic regions, and in Rocky 

 Mountains, etc. 



Nest : Close to ground, of grass, moss, or lichens. 



Eggs : 4-6, chocolate-colour, marked and scratched with black. 



Range : North America at large, wintering in the Gulf States, Mexico, 

 and Central America. Accidental in Europe. 



The Titlark may be recognized by its very uncertain, 

 wavering flight, seldom remaining long in one spot, but 

 moving on and hovering and wheeling about the place 

 where it intends next to alight. I have seen them fre- 

 quently in the fields, on late October mornings when every- 

 thing was white with hoar frost and they were gleaning a 

 breakfast, uttering their thin notes and scattering irregu- 

 larly, only to gather immediately on some convenient fence- 



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