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should either go upon your search at high tide in a duck boat, or else at very low water, wearing seven-league boots. I could relate an amusing tale of an ardent female wearing rubber boots on the bird-quest, who, approaching the reeds from the land side, on seeing one of the coveted nests a little beyond, lost her head completely, and, forgetting in her enthusiasm to pick her way from hummock to hummock, straightway found herself in two feet of hidden water, and, when she finally extricated herself, the boots were left behind as a tribute to the tenacity of the mud, and their own generous size.

FAMILY MOTACILLIDÆ: WAGTAILS; PIPITS.

American Pipit, Titlark: Anthus pensilvanicus.

Brown Lark.

Length: 6.25-6.75 inches.

Male and Female: Above dark olive-brown. Tail and wings brown-black, the tail shorter than the wings, several outer tail feathers partly or wholly white. White eye ring and line over eye. Underneath whitish with washes of various shades of brown. Bill dark; feet brown.

Song: A hesitating querulous note.

Season: Abundant on salt marshes in migrations, April, May, October, and November.

Breeds: Only in high latitudes, sub-Arctic regions, and in Rocky Mountains, etc.

Nest: Close to ground, of grass, moss, or lichens.

Eggs: 4-6, chocolate-colour, marked and scratched with black.

Range: North America at large, wintering in the Gulf States, Mexico, and Central America. Accidental in Europe.

The Titlark may be recognized by its very uncertain, wavering flight, seldom remaining long in one spot, but moving on and hovering and wheeling about the place where it intends next to alight. I have seen them frequently in the fields, on late October mornings when everything was white with hoar frost and they were gleaning a breakfast, uttering their thin notes and scattering irregularly, only to gather immediately on some convenient fence-

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