The present season I met with a pair of them near Washington, as mentioned above.  In size this bird approaches the wood thrush, being larger than either the hermit or the veery; unlike all other species, no part of its plumage has a tawny or yellowish tinge.  The other specimen was the northern or small water-thrush, cousin-german to the oven-bird and the half-brother to the Louisiana water-thrush or wagtail.  I found it at the head of the Delaware, where it evidently had a nest.  It usually breeds much further north.  It has a strong, clear warble, which at once suggests the song of its congener.  I have not been able to find any account of this particular species in the books, though it seems to be well known.

More recent writers and explorers have added to Audubon’s list over three hundred new species, the greater number of which belong to the northern and western parts of the continent.  Audubon’s observations were confined mainly to the Atlantic and Gulf States and the adjacent islands; hence the Western or Pacific birds were but little known to him, and are only briefly mentioned in his works.

It is, by the way, a little remarkable how many of the Western birds seem merely duplicates of the Eastern.  Thus, the varied thrush of the West is our robin, a little differently marked; and the red-shafted woodpecker is our golden-wing, or high-hole, colored red instead of yellow.  There is also a Western chickadee, a Western chewink, a Western blue jay, a Western bluebird, a Western song sparrow, Western grouse, quail, hen-hawk, etc.

One of the most remarkable birds of the West seems to be a species of skylark, met with on the plains of Dakota, which mounts to the height of three or four hundred feet, and showers down its ecstatic notes.  It is evidently akin to several of our Eastern species.

A correspondent, writing to me from the country one September, said:  “I have observed recently a new species of bird here.  They alight upon the buildings and fences as well as upon the ground.  They are walkers.”  In a few days he obtained one and sent me the skin.  It proved to be what I had anticipated, namely the American pipit, or titlark, a slender brown bird, about the size of the sparrow, which passes through the States in the fall and spring, to and from its breeding haunts in the far north.  They generally appear by twos and threes, or in small loose flocks, searching for food on banks and plowed ground.  As they fly up, they show two or three white quills in the tail, like the vesper sparrow.  Flying over, they utter a single chirp or cry every few rods.  They breed in the bleak, moss-covered rocks of Labrador.  It is reported that their eggs have also been found in Vermont, and I feel quite certain that I saw this bird in the Adirondack Mountains in the month of August.  The male launches into the air, and gives forth a brief but melodious song, after the manner of all larks.  They are walkers.