TITLARK. : 237 
and under parts pale buffy or ochrey brown, variable in shace ; breast and sides of neck 
and body thickly streaked with dusky; wings and tail blackish, inner secondaries pale 
edged; one or more outer tail feathers wholly or partly white. Length about 64; wing 
3g; tail 23-3. 
Habitat, North America every where. 
Common spring and fall migrant. The Titlark makes its appearance 
about the first of October and remains until the first really cold weather, 
usually about the middle of November. In spring its migration seems 
to be peculiar. From the tenth to the twenty-fifth of April a few in- 
dividuals are seen, yet in winter plumage; none are then seen until 
the end of the first week in May, when smai:l flocks appear until 
May 15; these are in breeding plumage. The winter and breeding 
plumages differ more than is usual with birds of so uniform coloration. 
In the breeding plumage all the feathers of upper parts are suffused with 
whitish, strongiy suggesting that the bird has been dusted \ ith plaster of 
Paris; the buff of under parts is decidedly of a pinkish tinge, and the 
streaks smaller, fewer and more sharply defined than in the fall plumage. 
Tn the fall they are quite abundant, frequenting the gravelly banks of 
streams, often wading in the shallows, ia commons, faliow fields and old 
brick-yards. In spring they are less cousmon, and found in meadows. 
They have many peculiarities; their flight is undulating, irregular and 
prolonged, usually high; their note is a plaintive prolonged “ tseep” 
uttered while on the wing, ending now with a rising and now with a 
falling inflection. It is difficult to resist the impression from their vac- 
cillating flight and plantive note that they are confused or lost. When 
on the ground it has a constant habit of tipping its tail, its common 
name having probably arisen from this circumstance. It frequently 
alights on the dead limbs of trees. During the fall migration they some- 
times visit the city alighting in the streets and on buildings, but are 
usually seen flying high overhead. 
They breed in the mountains of Colorado in the west, and from Lab- 
rador northward in the Hast. The nest is large, built of grass, and 
piaced on the ground. The eggs are four or five, averaging a little over 
0 by .60, “of a dark chocolate color, indistinctly marked with numer- 
ous sinall spots and streaks of blackish.” 
PAMILY SYLVICOLIDA. WARBLERS. 
Primaries nine. Bill variously conico-elongated and acute; culmen not concave at 
base. Longest secondary not acuminate, falling far short of primaries in the closed 
wiug. Hind claw weil curved, not nearly twice as long as middle claw; hind toe and 
claw not longer than middle toe andclaw. Gape ample; tongueslightly bifid or brushy, 
if at all. 
