Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE SONG BIRDS

THE WAGTAILS AND PIPITS

Sprague's Pipit

Very distinctively American is Sprague's Pipit, or the Missouri Skylark (A. spragueii), a common bird of the interior plains, where it breeds abundantly as far north as the Saskatchewan district, and in winter retires to the table-lands of Mexico. Of its habits and marvelous song, lean do no better than quote from Dr. Coues: “The ordinary straight forward flight of the bird is performed with a regular rising and falling, like that of the Titlark; but its course, when startled from the ground, is exceedingly rapid and wayward; at such times, after the first alarm, they are wont to hover around in a desultory manner for a considerable time, and then pitch suddenly down to the ground, often near where they rose. Under such circumstances they have a lisping, querulous note. But the common traits have nothing to do with the wonderful soaring action and the inimitable, matchless song of the birds during the breeding season. Rising from the nest, or from its grassy bed, this plain-looking little bird, clad in the simplest of colors and making but a speck in the boundless expanse, mounts straight up, on tremulous wings, till lost to view in the blue ether, and sends back to earth a song of gladness that seems to come from the sky itself. No other bird-music heard in our land compares with the wonderful strains of this songster; there is something not of earth in the melody, coming from above, yet from no visible source. The notes are simply indescribable; their volume and penetration are truly wonderful; they are neither loud nor strong, yet the whole air seems filled with the tender strains, and the delightful melody continues unbroken. The song is only heard for a brief period in the summer, and is only uttered while the birds are soaring.”Their nests are placed on the ground under an upturned sod or in a tussock of grass, and are composed of fine grasses; their three or four eggs are similar to those of the Titlark though slightly larger.

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