^ While noting the absence of shore birds, I [ 

 saw a bird, not much larger than the little Sand- 1 

 piper, trotting along by the waves and picking \ 

 up its dinner like a veritable snipe. Soon I saw 

 others similarly employed, and further on, a 

 large flock gaily deporting themselves on the 

 beach. The birds were American Titla rks, 

 which are very common here In the winter. 



We have several marsh sparrows that make 

 their habitual abode within the province of the 

 water birds, but the sight of the Titlark, which 

 we have become accustomed to think of only in 

 connection with birds of the field, associating 

 in an entirely reckless manner with common 

 sandpipers close by the fishy sea, seemed to me 

 strikingly singular. , 



XI/ J ^jJb-. li'^r /t, 31. 



o 



P 



July 25, a friend told me he had found 

 a nest on the ground with four pretty, 

 dark-colored eggs. He was going to take 

 S^them up for me, "but the old bird flut- 

 Vtered around and felt so bad," that he 

 'ft didn't. To-day I got him to go with me 

 *^to the nest, and, alas! no eggs, but four 

 V chicks instead. As I expected, it was a 

 ^ Pipit or A merican Titlar k. I took the 

 ^nest, substituting a handful of dry grass. 

 It is entirely of dry grass, lined with fine, 

 wiry grass. Outer diameter, five inches ; 

 height, two inches ; inner diameter, two 

 and one-half inches; depth, one and one 

 quarter inches. 



