162 SPRAGUE'S PIPIT. 
much in the manner of Horned Larks. Some of them came regularly every day into 
my door yard searching for food. They rarely leave the ground and hardly ever alight 
on trees, fences, or posts. In Texas, I never saw them before November, but from that 
time they were abundant throughout the winter, returning to the North early in 
March, Audubon and Coues found nests in Labrador. “Although I have myself seen 
Titlarks wherever I have been,’’ says the last-named ornithologist, “I never found 
any breeding except in Labrador. It was there the most numerous of the land birds, 
excepting perhaps the White-crowned Sparrow, frequenting open, bare, and exposed 
localities, often on the rocky and barren islands, almost untenanted by other species. 
Here, as elsewhere in maritime localities, the birds 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 Sandpipers, and not distantly resembling these birds in their manners. Two nests 
I 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 the nest from the wet; the nests were built upon this, of coarse 
dried grass loosely arranged, and without lining.’? One nest contained five, the other 
four eggs, of a dark chocolate color, indistin@tly marked with numerous small spots 
and blackish streaks. 
‘The Meapow Piprr, Authus pratensis BECHSTEIN, a bird of Europe, occurs some- 
times in Greenland, and the REpD-rHROATED Pipit, Anthus cervinus Krys. & BUAs., is 
occasionally met with in St. Michaels and on the Aleutian Islands. 
NAMES: American Prpert, Titlark, Prairie Titlark, Reddish-brown Titlark, Louisiana Lark, Hudsonian 
Wagtail.— Pieper (German), Polarpieper (Thienem.).—Farlouzanne (Buff.), Alouette aux joues brunes 
de Pensilvanie (Buff.), Hochequeue de la baie d’Hudson (Vieill.). 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Alauda pensilvanica Briss. (1760). ANTHUS PENSILVANICUS Taienem. (1849). 
Alauda ludoviciana Gmel. (1788). Anthus ludovicianus Licht. (1823). Alauda migratoria Bartr. 
(1791). Alauda rufa Wils. (1812). Anthus spinoletta Bp. (1826). Anthus aquaticus S. & R. (1831). 
Anthus pipiens Aud. (1832). 
DESCRIPTION: Sexes alike. Above, olive-brown, most of the feathers with dusky centres. Wings and tail 
dusky, with lighter edgings; line over the eye brownish-white or buffy-brown; chin, breast, sides of 
the body, streaked with dusky. 
Length, 6 to 7 inches; wings, 3.20 to 3.50; tail, 2.65 to 2.85 inches. 
SPRAGUE'S Pipir: MissourR! SKYLARK. 
Anthus spragueii BarrD. 
F WE WISH to become acquainted with Spracue’s Pipit we must visit the extensive 
prairies of North Dakota and the Saskatchewan. Where but a few years ago the 
Sioux Indians chased the buffalo and where, even to-day, large distri@s are unexplored, 
there is the home of Sprague’s Titlark. At the present day settlers from other States 
and Europe constantly and irresistibly immigrate into this prairie country, for the deep 
