They breed in great numbers on the plains of Wyoming Territory, and probably also in Colorado, Montana, and Dakota. The Smithsonian collection embraces specimens obtained in July from the Yellowstone, from Platte River, Pole Creek, the Black Hills, and Bridger’s Pass, indicating that they breed in these localities; also specimens from Texas, New Mexico, Sonora, and Espia, in Mexico, but none from California. Dr. Kennerly, who met with these birds both in Sonora and at Espia, on the Mexican Boundary Survey, states that he observed them in the valley of the river early in the morning, in very large flocks. During the greater part of the day they feed on the hills among the bushes. When on the wing they keep very close together, so that a single discharge of shot would sometimes bring down twenty or thirty. Mr. J. H. Clark, on the same survey, also states that he sometimes found them occurring in flocks of hundreds. The greatest numbers were seen near Presidio del Norte. Great varieties of plumage were observed in the same flock. The food seemed to be seeds almost exclusively. They were very simultaneous in all their movements. Stragglers were never observed remaining behind after the flock had started. They are, he states, the most absolutely gregarious birds he has ever met with. Dr. Coues, who regarded this bird as one highly characteristic of the prairie fauna, writes me that he met with it in great numbers in Kansas, soon after leaving Fort Riley, and saw it every day until he reached the Raton Mountains in New Mexico. “For two or three days, in fact, from Fort Larned to the mountains,” he writes, “I scarcely saw anything else. This was the first week in June, and most of the birds seemed to be paired and nesting, though occasionally a dozen or more were seen together, flocking like the Blackbirds that they strongly recall. They were in full song, and proved delightful vocalists. Sometimes they warble from some spray or low bush offering a stand a little above the level flower-beds of the prairie, but oftener they mount straight up, hovering high in the air on tremulous wings, pouring forth their melodious strains until, seemingly exhausted, they sink back to the ground. At such times it is interesting to watch two rival males, each straining every nerve to mount higher than the other, and sing more acceptably to its mate hidden in the verdure below. This habit of rising on the wing to sing, so famed in the case of the Skylark, seems not confined to particular species, but to be a forced practice of a number of different birds residing in open level regions, that do not afford the elevated perches usually chosen by woodland songsters for their performances. The ordinary flight of this species is altogether of a different character, being a low gliding motion, overtopping the weeds and bushes. That the birds were nesting at this time is rendered still more probable by the fact that the