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AMERICAN PIPIT OR TITLARK. 
Anthus ludovicianus, Lichtenstein. 
PLATE CL. — Male and Female. 
This species is met with in every portion of the United States which I 
have visited. It is one of the birds that I should call gifted with a double 
set of habits, for, like a very few others that are strictly named land birds, 
it occurs not only in the fields in the interior of the country, but also on 
the borders of rivers, and even on the shores of the Atlantic. 
Its flight is extremely easy, and what I would call of a beautiful and 
delicate nature. In other words, these birds pass and repass through the air, 
performing numberless evolutions, as if it did not cost them the least labour 
to fly. When in the interior of the country, they resort to the old fields, 
and the vast prairies, as well as the ploughed lands, seldom in flocks of less 
than ten or a dozen, and not unfrequently by hundreds. Now, they are 
seen high, loosely moving in short reiterated undulations, inspecting the 
ground below ; now, they come sweeping over and close to it, and seem 
about to alight, when, on the contrary, their ranks close in an instant, they 
wheel about, and rise again into the air. These feats are often repeated six 
or seven times, when at last, satisfied as to their safety, or the abundance of 
food in the spot, they alight, and immediately run about in quest of food. 
They run briskly, and as lightly as birds usually called Larks are wont to 
do, but with this difference, that they suffer their tails to vibrate whenever 
they stop running. Again, instead of squatting partially down, as true 
Larks do, to pick up their food, they move their body upon the upper joints 
of the legs, in the manner of Thrushes and other birds. Another habit 
seldom found in the Lark genus is that of settling on fences and trees, and 
walking along them with apparent ease. 
Whilst residing among the meadows and ploughed fields, these birds feed 
on insects and small seeds, picking up some gravel at the same time. Along 
the rivers, or on the sea-shores, they are fond of running as near the edge of 
the water as possible, and searching among the drifted leaves and weeds for 
such insects as are usually found there. The vibratory motion of their tail 
is now more perceptible, being quicker. Their feeble notes are also 
frequently uttered. When shot along the shores, their stomachs have been 
found filled with fragments of minute shells, as well as small shrimps, and 
