THE OTTAWA f(ATURALIST. 



Vol. XVJ. 



OTTAWA, AUGUST, 1902. 



Mo. s. 



EARLY NESTING IN 1902. 



By W. E. Saunders, London, Ont. 



( Read before the Ornitholotfical Section of the Entomolog"ical Society of 



Ontario.) 



On March 28th, 1902. I made a short trip in the afternoon to 

 look after the Prairie Horned Lark. On a common in the eastern 

 part of this city I found two pairs. One female was feeding 

 rapidly, so that I judged she was in a hurry to get back and pro- 

 tect her eggs from the drizzling rain which was then falling, and 

 her wet appearance hinted that she had been off the nest a good 

 while. After feeding a while she preened herself and shortly after 

 went behind a tuft of grass and rested there, screened from the 

 wind and rain by the height of the tuft. After flushing her once 

 or twice, I decided that she could not have eggs, and left her. 

 The other female was found as usual by following the male, and 

 she had not been watched more than fifteen minutes before 

 she went on the nest, which was situated on the open 

 common. Going over, I found 3 young, apparently about yi 

 grown, with feathers sprouting on the wings and in good general 

 condition, probably 4 days old. Allowing 11 days for incubation 

 md 3 for laying, the first egg would have been laid on the iith 

 of March, which is so extraordinarily early that it drew me into a 

 comparison with other birds and other years. These birds often 

 have young flying before May ist, and I found a nest on April 9th, 

 i8q8, with 3 eggs, half incubated, but never earlier. Mr. Morden 

 once took a fresh set of 4 on April 7th, and his only earlier set 

 was of 3 eggs, incubation ^^ on March 27th, 1889 ; but these 

 were far from being 3 young on March 28th ! 



