THE INVITATION 217 
Western or Pacific birds were but little known to 
him, and are only briefly mentioned in his works. 
It is, by the way, a little remarkable how many 
of the Western birds seem merely duplicates of the 
Eastern. Thus, the varied thrush of the West is 
our robin, a little differently marked; and the red- 
shafted woodpecker is our golden-wing, or high- 
hole, colored red instead of yellow. There is also 
a Western chickadee, a Western chewink, a West- 
ern blue jay, a Western meadowlark, a Western 
snowbird, a Western bluebird, a Western song spar- 
row, Western grouse, quail, hen-hawk, etc. 
One of the most remarkable birds of the West 
seems to be a species of skylark, met with on the 
plains of Dakota, which mounts to the height of 
three or four hundred feet, and showers down its 
ecstatic notes. It is evidently akin to several of 
our Eastern species. 
A correspondent, writing to me from the country 
one September, said: “I have observed recently a 
new species of bird here. They alight upon the 
buildings and fences as well as upon the ground. 
They are walkers.” In a few days he obtained 
one, and sent me the skin. It proved to be what 
I had anticipated, namely, the American pipit, or 
titlark, a slender brown bird, about the size of the 
sparrow, which passes through the States in the fall 
and spring, to and from its breeding haunts in the 
far north, They generally appear by twos and 
threes, or in small loose flocks, searching for food 
on banks and plowed ground. As they fly up, they 
