264 



In the fall of 1884 the Titlark was first seen at Gainesville, Tex., 

 November 1. 



In the spring of 1885 the first migrant was seen at Gainesville March 

 10; at Manhattan, Kans., April 15 5 at Des Moines, Iowa, April 18; and 

 at Elk Eiver, Minn., May 6. 



In the fall of 1885 it was first seen at Gainesville November 13 ; and 

 a flock was seen there November 18. Mr. Lloyd states that in western 

 Texas it is ''common in fall migration; less common in spring." 



700. Anthus spragueii (Aud.). [73.] Sprague's Titlark. 



Breeds abundantly in the Assinaboine region, and in Dakota and west- 

 ern Minnesota. Since Dr. Cones, in his "Birds of tbe Northwest," 

 queried whether Sprague's Lark left Dakota for the winter, much has 

 been learned of its movements. We now know that its winter haunts lie 

 far from Dakota, and that it penetrates even to the south of southwest- 

 ern Texas. Just where it winters seems not yet determined, but as the 

 record now stands it appears to winter below the United States.* Mr. 

 Nehrling found it in small flocks near Houston, Tex., in early Novem- 

 ber, but it soon disappeared. Mr. Nathan Clifford Brown did not find 

 it at Boerne, near San Antonio, Tex., until March 16, so that its winter 

 home must be south of these points. At Gainesville, Tex., it was seen 

 as late as May 7. While northern Dakota and western Manitoba con- 

 stitute its special breeding grounds, where it nests in great numbers, 

 yet it can be found in summer in western Minnesota, in Nebraska (where 

 it arrives about the middle of May), and probably also in western Kan- 

 sas. Colonel Goss says of it in his List of the Birds of Kansas : "Mi- 

 gratory, rare"; but Dr. Watson writes from Ellis, Kans.: 



I am in doubt how to classify this bird, but I think it is a summer resident. During 

 what should be its breeding season I have seen birds ascend almost to invisibility, 

 but lost sight of them in the descent, and they were not captured. 



As the soaring he describes is confined to the breeding season, the 

 birds he saw probably had nests in the vicinity. 



In Tom Green County, Tex., on the edge of the plains, one was shot 

 in January, 1885. In the spring of 1885 Spragne's Titlark, or Pipit, 

 was first seen at San Antonio, Tex., February 26. At^Gainesville, Tex., 

 the first was seen April 8 and the last May 6. 



In the fall of 1885 the first was seen at Gainesville October 12, and 

 the next November 2. In Concho County, Tex., a small flock was seen 

 October 15, 1886 (Llovd). 



701. Cinclus mexicanus Swains. [19.] American Dipper; Water Ouzel. 



The home of the Water Onzel, or Dipper, is along the mountain 

 streams of western North America. According to Professor Aughey it 

 is "rare over most of Nebraska, but abundant in Oteo County;" and 

 Grinnell has recorded it from the Black Hills of Dakota. 



[*It has been recorded as wintering in immense flocks in central Arkansas, in com- 

 pany with Lapland Longspurs (Coues, Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. IV, 1879, p. 238). 

 — C. H. M.] 



