CROW RELATIVES 



get a few snapshots with the reflecting camera of the 

 jays that had young, as they scolded from the foliage 

 above me. I shall keep on looking, though, and some 

 fine day, I expect I shall find a bold pair of jays after 

 my own heart. If Ned should succeed first, though, I 

 know I should never hear the last of it. 



There is a group, or Family, of birds which comes 

 next after the Corvidse, or Crows, called Icteridse, 

 which means oriole-like birds. It includes the various 

 blackbirds, so that it is easy to think of them along 

 with the crow. One of its members is the Meadow- 

 lark, which is really not a lark at all. The Family of 

 true Larks comes in the classification just before the 

 Crows, and, as we have just one species, we may as 

 well mention it here with the IVIeadowlark. It is the 

 Horned Lark, or Shore Lark. During the winter 

 months they come down to us from the cold North, 

 especially along the seacoast, on beaches or sand 

 dunes. How^ I have enjoyed midwinter seashore 

 strolls, and this pretty lark, with its salmon tints, 

 black half -moon on the breast and curious little feathery 

 "horns." They go in scattered flocks, often with the 

 handsome white Snowflake, or Snow Bunting. We 

 trace them by their mellow chirpings and find them 

 here and there among the beach grass, picking up the 

 seeds. Like enough w^e alarm them and away goes 

 the flock all at once. For a while they circle about in 

 the air, and finally return, perhaps, to nearly the same 

 place. Inland they are not so common, yet we are 



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