218 
SPEAGUE’S MISSOTTEI LAEK. 
discover with the eye, and at times some of them actually disappearing from 
our sight, in the clear thin air of that country. 
On the ground they run prettily, sometimes squatting to observe the move- 
ments of the intruder, and at times erecting their body fronting the pursuer. 
After procuring a good number of them, bur anxiety about discovering their 
nest was relieved by Mr. Sprague, who brought us one containing five 
eggs ; and afterwards we procured several young fully fledged. 
On first rising from the ground they fly in so deep and undulating a 
manner, as almost to preclude their being shot on the wing ; and this they 
continue to do, forming circles increasing in extent until about one hundred 
yards high, when they begin to sing, and continue to do so for fifteen or 
twenty minutes at a time, and then suddenly closing their wings, they glide 
down on the prairie below. We had not been long in chase, ere we 
discovered that they could be approached much easier by riding after them 
in a small wagon, and on several excursions we all procured specimens. 
Sometimes when rising from the ground, as if about to sing, for some forty 
or fifty yards, they suddenly pitch downwards, alight, and run or squat, as 
already mentioned. 
The nest of this species is placed on the ground*and somewhat sunk in it. 
It is made entirely of fine grasses, circularly arranged, without any lining 
whatever. 
The eggs, which usually are four to five in number, average seven-eighths 
of an inch in length by five-eighths in breadth, are smooth and dotted 
minutely all over, giving them a general greyish-purple hue. The young, 
after being hatched, follow the parents on the ground, and are fed with the 
smaller seeds of grasses, and gradually with insects, &c. They were already 
found in loose small flocks of eight to a dozen before we left Port Union on 
the 16th of August, and some had begun their migrations southward, as well 
as -many other species of birds. 
Sprague’s Missouri Lark, Alauda Spragueii , Aud. 
6 , 10 *. 
Found on the prairies near Fort Union. Habits somewhat similar to the 
European Sky-lark. Abundant. 
Adult Male. 
All the upper parts are light reddish-brown, streaked with blackish-brown; 
the fore neck pale yellowish, streaked around the upper part of the breast 
with elongated brownish-spots. Sides deeper, or nearly reddish-brown. 
Second primary longest, the first rather longer than the third. Secondaries 
nearing the end- of the primaries to within three and a half eighths of an 
