WATKINS ON BIRDS THAT NEST IN MEADOWS. 73 



grass, where the general growth is rather thin, and if possible in some 

 natural depression such as is made by a cow T or horse stepping in the 

 mud, or where a small stone has been turned over, etc. It is composed 

 loosely of grasses, roots of grasses, and sometimes hairs, carelessly placed. 

 The usual clutch of eggs is live, white, speckled and in some cases splashed 

 slightly, with reddish brown. The food of the Grasshopper Sparrow, 1 

 am very positive consists largely of insects. The young, at least, are fed 

 almost entirely with insects and I have often seen the parent birds car- 

 rying larvae about in their beaks for hours after the nests had been 

 destroyed, looking for their brood. The adults feed also upon seeds to 

 some extent. Of no harm and of great benefit. 



The Black-throated Bunting, Spiza americana, is the latest species 

 to follow the opening up of the country, bidding fair to become a com- 

 mon species where it has been heretofore very rare or wholly unknown. 

 It is as 3 r et abundant only in certain restricted localities but is becoming 

 more generally distributed each year. It is with us at Fairview Farm 

 already somewhat common, several pairs usually occupying each forty 

 acre hay lot. The nests are, so far as I have observed, always situated 

 upon the ground in the thick grass, or clover fields, or fastened among 

 the growing stems a few inches from the ground. The four eggs are 

 laid usually in early June and are almost exact counterparts in color and 

 size of those of the Bluebird. They are, however, of a more round-oval 

 form than those of the latter, one end being about as large as the other. 

 In fact they come nearer being round than the eggs of any species that I 

 can recall. Many nests, also, of this bird are destroyed in haying time. 

 The food consists mostly of insects — some seeds. We should welcome 

 this bird to a place among the common species in our State. 



The Meadowlark, Sturnella magna, is one of the most universally 

 known species in the entire list. Its unmistakable identity, bright 

 appearance and attractive notes, cause it to be noticed particularly and 

 remembered by all who meet it. The Meadowlark arrives in Michigan 

 usually between March first and tenth and at once fills the air with its 

 mellow, whistling song. The first nests are made early in May and nidi- 

 fication is continued through June. They are built upon the ground and 

 are among the most elaborately formed, for protection, found in bird 

 architecture. Built usually in the side of an .especially thick tuft of grass 

 in the meadow, the blades near at hand being drawn down and woven 

 together over the nest proper, which consists almost entirely of dried 

 grasses, we very often find in connection a tunnel of woven grass stems 

 conveying the bird as she leaves the nest several yards unseen before she 

 rises to fly. The eggs are five, crystal white, speckled and blotched with 

 reddish brown. The food of the Meadowlark consists largely of insects, 

 both of imagos, such as beetles, flies, bugs, etc., and the various lepidop- 

 terous, hymenopterous and dipterous larvae which infest our hay fields. 

 Grasshoppers and crickets are also taken. When insect food cannot be 

 obtained, as when an individual occasionally winters with us, seeds and 

 grains are readily taken. 



I have little doubt that the Field Sparrow, Spisella piisilla, and the 



Brown Thrasher, Harporhynchus rufus, occasionally nest upon the ground 



in the grassy borders of open fields. Their nesting sites vary much 



and they seek the brush heaps and shrubby borders of the open country 



10 



