BIRDS OF THE ARID PLAIN 91 



exquisite and unique that I involuntarily sprang to 

 my feet with a cry of delight. There he sat in the 

 lengthening shadows of Cheyenne Mountain, the 

 champion phrase-fluter of the irrigated meadow in 

 which he and a number of his comrades had found 

 a summer home. 



On the plain, at the time of my visit, the meadow- 

 larks were not quite so tuneful, for here the seasons are 

 somewhat earlier than in the proximity of the moun- 

 tains, and the time of courtship and incubation was 

 over. Still, thev sang enough to prove themselves 

 members of a o-ifted musical familv. Observers in the 

 East will remember the sputtering call of the eastern 

 larks when they are alarmed or their suspicions are 

 aroused. The western larks do not utter alarums of 

 that kind, but a harsh "chack" instead, very similar 

 to the call of the grackles. The nesting habits of the 

 eastern and western species are the same, their domiciles 

 being placed on the ground amid the grass, often 

 prettily arched over in the rear and made snug and 

 neat. 



It must not be thought, because my monograph on 

 the western larks is included in this chapter, that they 

 dwell exclusively on the arid plain. No ; they revel 

 likewise in the areas of verdure bordering the streams, 

 in the irrigated fields and meadows, and in the watered 

 portions of the upper mountain parks. 



