112 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



afield with a camera beside the Wabash River and 

 confined to the same stretch of territory for two 

 seasons, I heard the notes and frequently saw the 

 high-flying form of a lark, which could have been 

 nothing but an English skylark. I called upon my 

 undefended head the harsh criticism of a number 

 of writers on ornithological subjects by describing 

 the high flight of this bird and his exquisite song 

 among the clouds, when he seemed literally to 

 soar to the gates of Heaven. As I recall, I de- 

 scribed him as flying higher than any other bird 

 which sang on wing, and this is exactly what he 

 did. I never succeeded in getting sufficiently 

 close to him to differentiate his markings and 

 feathering from our meadow larks which were 

 constantly singing from rod lines, high fence posts, 

 and other points of vantage about as high as the 

 average tree, or singing on wing, but in flight not so 

 high as the goldfinch or oriole. Just at the time 

 when I was most severely criticized for describing 

 this lark of high flight and exquisite song, the facts 

 were made public in the newspapers of the East 

 that several men had some British skylarks cap- 

 tured, brought to this country and released in an 

 effort to add them to our ornithology. I am sorry 

 that I lost this clipping and can no longer give its 

 origin, for undoubtedly it was a skylark from these 

 importations, which for two seasons sang above 

 the Limberlost. The reference to bird importa- 

 tions in the West met a better fate and can be 



