_Alauda spraguei_, AUD. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 335, pl. cccclxxxvi. _Agrodoma spraguei_, BAIRD, Stansbury’s Rep. 1852, 329. _Neocorys spraguei_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 5.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 234.—BLAKISTON, Ibis, 1862, 4 (Saskatchewan).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 80. _Anthus (Neocorys) spraguei_, BAIRD, Rev. 155. SP. CHAR. Above wood-brown, all the feathers edged with paler, especially on the neck, where there is a brownish-yellow tinge. The under parts are dull white, with a collar of sharply defined narrow brown streaks across the forepart and along the sides of the breast. Lores and a superciliary line whitish. Tail-feathers, except the middle ones, dark brown; the outer one white, the second white, with the inner margin brown. The outer primary is edged with white, and there are two dull whitish bands across the wings. Bill and feet yellow, the former brown above. Length (female), 5.75; wing, 3.35; tail, 2.50. HAB. Plains of Yellowstone and Upper Missouri to Saskatchewan; Nebraska. [Line drawing: _Neocorys spraguei._ 16766] This little-known species has the general appearance of a Titlark, but is readily distinguished from _Anthus ludovicianus_ by the purer white of its under parts, the much darker centres and much paler margins to the feathers above, the entirely white external tail-feather, and the yellow legs and bill, as well as by its generic peculiarities. In its song and general habits it approaches nearer the European Skylark than any bird belonging to our fauna. HABITS. This interesting species was first described by Audubon, in the supplementary portion of his Birds of America. It was obtained by the party which accompanied him to the Upper Missouri in 1843. It was first met with on the 19th of June near Fort Union, in Dacotah Territory. It has since been found on the fork of the Saskatchewan, but little additional information respecting its habits has been obtained since its first discovery. [Illustration: _Neocorys spraguei._] It seems to more nearly approach, in its habits, the European Skylark than any other of our North American birds. Mr. Edward Harris was completely misled, at first, by the sound of their song, so that on several occasions he sought for them on the ground. Their voices appeared to come to him from the earth’s surface. After having travelled in quest of them, to no purpose, to many distant parts of the prairies, he at last discovered that these sounds proceeded from several of these birds soaring at so great an elevation as to make them difficult to discover by the eye, even in the transparent atmosphere of that country.