178 
ANTIIUS SPINOLETTA. 
they began to dress and arrange their plumage, s***, 
continued so employed for ten or fifteen minutes roor®’ 
then, oil a feiv n-arning notes being given, perliaps W 
the leader of the party, the whole remounted to a va? 
height, steering in a direct line for the southwest. * 
passing along the chain of the Bahamas towards tjl. 
West Indies, no great difficulty can occur, from 
frequency of these islands ; nor even to the Bermutl^fl 
which ares.aid to be six hundred miles from the neaf^ 
part of the continent. This may seem an extraordina'l 
flight for so small a bii’d ; but it is nevertheless a 
that it is performed. If we suppose the bluebird in t’*!' 
case to fly only at the rate of a mile per minute, wbii'l’ 
less than I have actually ascertained him to do over ba 'jj 
ten or eleven hours would be sufficient to acconip“‘f 
the journey; besides the chances he tvould hava ^ 
resting jilaces by the way, from the number of 
that generally navigate those seas. In like mauaf| 
two days at most, allowing for numerous stages 
rest, would conduct him from the remotest regionii 
Mexico to any part of the Atlantic States. When 
natural history of that part of the continent and ‘ , 
adjacent isles is better known, and the periods " 
which its birds of passage arrive and depart, arc 
ascertained, I have no doubt but these supposit>‘”’^ 
will be fully corroborated. 
GENUS XXIU. — ANTIIUS, Seciist. 
139. ANTIIUS SPINOLETTA, BONAr. — ALAUEA SUFA, WirSC^' 
BllOWX LARK. 
WILSON, PLATE XLIt. FIG. IV. 
In what particular district of the northern reg'‘''L 
this bird breeds, I am unable to say. In Pennsylv»‘y 
it first arrives from the north about the niiddl® 
October; flies in loose scattered flocks; is stroHo 
attached to flat, neivly plowed fields, commons, 
such like situations; has a feeble note, characteristic 
