Dr. Coues describes their eggs as of a dark chocolate-color, indistinctly marked with numerous small lines and streaks of black. Audubon describes them as having a ground-color of a deep reddish-chestnut, darkened by numerous dots of deeper reddish-brown and lines of various sizes, especially toward the larger end. Those in my possession, received from Labrador by Thienemann, measure from .75 to .78 of an inch in length, and from .59 to .62 in breadth, and have a light-brown or clay-colored ground, so thickly covered with spots as to be almost concealed. These spots are of a purplish chocolate-brown, with occasional darker lines about the larger end. In others the markings are bolder and larger and of brighter hues. Like the eggs of the Anthus arboreus of Europe, it is probable that those of this Titlark exhibit great variations, both in ground-color and in the shades of their markings.
Anthus pratensis, Bechst.
EUROPEAN PIPIT.
Alauda pratensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. 1766, 287. Anthus pratensis, Bechst. Deutsch. Vögel, III, 1807, 732.—Keys. & Blas. Wirb. Europas, 1840, 172.—Zander, Cab. Jour. I, extraheft, 1853, 60.—Paulsen, ed. Hölboll, Faun. Grönlands, 1846, 24.—Reinhardt, Ibis, 1861, 6.—Newton, Baring-Gould’s Iceland, 1863.—Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 155.
Figures: Gould’s Birds Europe, pl. cxxxvi.
Hab. Europe generally; common in Lapland; accidental in Greenland; St. Michael’s, Norton Sound.
This species in general form resembles the A. ludovicianus, the fifth primary in both being abruptly and considerably shorter than the outer four; the bill and legs quite similar. The average size appears much the same. The upper parts are, however (especially the head and back), more distinctly streaked with dusky; the edge and inside of wing greenish-yellow, not white, and the upper plumage and outer edges of the quills decidedly olive-green. The shafts of the middle tail-feathers above are whitish, not dark
brown; the under parts greenish-white, conspicuously streaked with dark brown. The bill is dusky, the base and edges paler; the legs dusky flesh-color, not dark brown.
The occurrence of this species in Greenland was noticed in the Review; and since the publication of that work a specimen has been obtained at St. Michael’s, in Alaska, by Mr. W. H. Dall, and is now in the Smithsonian collection. The specimen in question appears to be the true pratensis.
Habits. This European species claims a place in the North American fauna on the ground of a single specimen having been found in Greenland, in 1845, and one at St. Michael’s, Norton Sound. In the Old World it is the counterpart of our ludovicianus, which, in all respects, it closely resembles. It is the most common and the best known of European Titlarks. In Great Britain, where it is found throughout the year, it appears to prefer the uncultivated districts, inhabiting commons and waste lands, and in the more northern parts frequenting the moors. It is also found in meadows and marsh lands, in winter seeking more sheltered places. It is rarely seen to alight on a branch or to sit on a rail. Its song is soft and musical, and is usually uttered when on the wing or when vibrating over its nest. It seeks its food altogether on the ground, running nimbly in pursuit of insects, slugs, and worms. According to Yarrell its nest is built on the ground, generally among the grass. It is composed externally of dried sedges, lined with finer materials and some hair. The eggs are six in number, of a reddish-brown color, mottled over with darker shades of the same, and measure .80 by .60 of an inch.