AMERICAN PIPIT OR TITLARK. 41 



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 concealed 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. 



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. 



This bird extends its migrations to the Missouri and Columbia river, 

 where it was met with by Mr. Townsend. I found it in April in the 

 Texas, and Dr. Richardson observed it in small flocks on the plains of the 

 Saskatchewan in the spring of 1S27, feeding on the larvae of small insects, 

 particularly of a species of ant. I found it breeding very abundantly on 

 the coast of Labrador, on the 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 incubate, sitting so closely, 

 that on several occasions I almost put my foot upon them before they flew. 

 The first that I found was on the 29th of June, when the thermometer 

 ranged from 51° to 54°. The eggs were six in number, five-eighths of an 

 inch long, six and a quarter twelfths in breadth, being rather elongated, 

 though rounded at both ends; their ground-colour 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. 

 The drawing of an egg supposed to be of this species, sent me by Dr. 

 Thomas M. Brewer of Boston, measures seven-eighths of an inch in 

 length, five-eighths in breadth, and is more pointed at the small end than 

 any of' those found in Labrador; its ground-colour is whitish, faintly marked 

 all over with dull reddish-brown dots. It was found in Coventry, in the 

 State of Vermont. 



These Titlarks vary much in colour, having the upper parts in spring 

 almost of a leaden grey, the cheeks and a line over the eye whitish, the 

 lower parts of a beautiful light buff. The claws of those shot in Labrador 

 were shorter than usual, having probably been worn in scratching the mosses 

 and soil in forming a place for the nest. During the breeding-time the male 



