178 ANTHUS SPINOLETTA. 
they began to dress and arrange their plumage, and 
continued so employed for ten or fifteen minutes more ; 
then, on a few warning notes being given, perhaps by 
the leader of the party, the whole remounted to a vast 
height, steering in a direct line for the southwest. In 
passing along the chain of the Bahamas towards the 
West Indies, no great difficulty can occur, from the 
frequency of these islands ; nor even to the Bermudas, 
which are said to he six hundred miles from the nearest 
part of the continent. This may seem an extraordinary 
flight for so small a bird ; but it is nevertheless a fact 
that it is performed. If we suppose the bluebird in this 
case to fly only at the rate of a mile per minute, which is 
less than I have actually ascertained him to do over land, 
ten or eleven hours would be sufficient to accomplish 
the journey; besides the chances he would have of 
resting places by the way, from the number of vessels 
that generally navigate those seas. In like manner, 
two days at most, allowing for numerous stages for 
rest, would conduct him from the remotest regions of 
Mexico to any part of the Atlantic States. When the 
natural history of that part of the continent and its 
adjacent isles is better known, and the periods at 
which its birds of passage arrive and depart, are truly 
ascertained, I have no doubt but these suppositions 
will be fully corroborated. 
GENUS XXIII. — ANTHUS, Bechst. 
139 . ANTHUS SPINOLETTA, BONAF. ALA UFA RUFA , WILSON. 
BROWN LARK. 
WILSON, PLATE XLII. FIG. IV. 
In what particular district of the northern regions 
this bird breeds, I am unable to say. In Pennsylvania 
it first arrives from the north about the middle of 
October ; flies in loose scattered flocks ; is strongly 
attached to flat, newly plowed fields, commons, and 
such like situations; has a feeble note, characteristic of 
