CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE 397 



of the male, with his conspicuous white wing-patches 

 and occasional white outlines on the tail, renders him a 

 striking object as he shoots up from the grass like a 

 rocket and whistles his merry song. This he does in 

 true bobolink fashion, never pausing to catch his breath 

 until, sliding downward through the air, he alights 

 within twenty feet of his starting point and finishes the 

 trilling begun in midair. Over and over, all day long, 

 during the nesting time, he repeats this double aerial 

 feat of flight and song. It is as if a sudden explosion of 

 joy within him sent him skyward on wings of music. Its 

 force spent, he flutters down to the quiet gladness of 

 earth once more and soliloquizes sweetly on the wonder 

 of it, as he swings on a low perch. 



Like the bobolink, too, he changes his summer plu- 

 mage to a less striking suit of brown like that of his mate, 

 before he starts on his fall trip to the plateaus of Mexico. 

 Ilis nest is deftly hidden in the weed clumps of a moun- 

 tain meadow, and neither he nor the demure little mother 

 bird will reveal its whereabouts. In this trait also he 

 resembles the bobolink, for, instead of rising from the 

 nest as the meadowlarks and some sparrows are apt to 

 do, the Lark Bunting slips through the weeds for some 

 distance before reaching her grass-lined cradle. 



The baby Buntings are fed exclusively upon insect 

 diet as long as they remain in the nest, and for some 

 time after leaving it. They hide in the cover of the 

 grass and weeds until able to fly well, and at night they 

 cuddle into the thick underbrush, like little quail, with 

 both parents on guard. Even after the first real flight it 



