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 Prance 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. Bichardson observed it in small flocks on the plains of the 
Saskatchewan in the spring of 1827, 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-chest- 
nut 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 
