444 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



It is one of our first birds to arrive from the soutli, in fact, a few individuals 

 always winter in favorable places in the southern part of the state, and in 

 mild winters considerable numbers remain. The northward movement 

 always begins early in March if not before, but the records for the southern 

 part of the state are of course vitiated by the fact that some of the birds 

 have wintered there. At Lansing the first arrivals range from March 3 

 to March 28, and probably an average date for the center of the Lower 

 Peninsula would be March 12. Often they come in small flocks, but these 

 are seldom compact and the birds are soon found everywhere, in pairs or 

 singly, or occasionally in little parties of three to five. 



Nest building begins early in May and fresh eggs may be found at almost 

 any time after the 10th of that month in southern Michigan, and from 

 ten days to two weeks later in the more northern counties. Very com- 

 monly, if not usually, a second nesting takes place in July, and it is not 

 uncommon to find young birds barely able to fly late in August. The nest 

 is always placed on the ground, sometimes in the side of a tussock or bank, 

 but more often on the level ground in some neglected field, pasture or 

 meadow, where the dead grass is somewhat long. It is always well con- 

 cealed, and not infrequently is approached by a covered tunnel or run, 

 sometimes extending two feet or more from the nest. The nest itself 

 is composed almost entirely of grasses, and the eggs are commonly five or 

 six, occasionally four or seven. They are variously marked with brown, 

 purple and lavender dots and lines on a nearly white ground color. Some- 

 times the spots are very few, and rarely the eggs are thickly spotted. 

 They average 1.10 by .78 inches. Incubation is said to last fifteen or 

 sixteen days. 



The song of the Meadowlark is hardly more, than a prolonged call-note, 

 yet it is so sweet and clear that when first heard after the long silence of 

 winter it is one of the most attractive of bird calls. Bendire writes the 

 song " hee-hee-hee-thee-hea " and gives the call-note or alarm-note as 

 "eeck-eeck, ending with a tremulous quaver." 



From the standpoint of the agriculturist the Meadowlark has few rivals; 

 in fact, we do not know that it has a single bad habit. It feeds almost 

 entirely upon insects, grass-seed and weed-seeds, rarely eating grain of any 

 kind and probably never taking sprouting grain or grain from the head 

 or shock. Moreover, the insects consumed are nearly or quite all injurious 

 forms. It eats moths, grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, cut-worms, cater- 

 pillars, and a variety of other insects, but is partial to the forms which are 

 so constantly present in pastures and meadows, working upon the vegetation 

 in such places that it is impossible for the farmer to destroy them. This 

 bird by no means confines itself to the naked span-worms and other larvse 

 which most other birds eat, but it devours with equal avidity the hairy 

 caterpillars which few birds will touch. In Illinois, in the summer of 1880, 

 Professor Forbes found that the Meadowlarks ate the chinch bug "in barely 

 sufficient numbers to show that they have no unconquerable prejudice 

 against them." 



It is much to be regretted that the bird is large enough to make an 

 attractive mark for the would-be sportsman and the small boy, for it is 

 followed up relentlessly and shot for food or for "sport" in spite of the 

 protective law which absolutely forbids its destruction at any time, but 

 which unfortunately is seldom enforced. The Meadowlark is not naturally 

 shy or suspicious and wherever it is rigidly protected for a few seasons 

 it becomes familiar and even confiding, nesting readily in close proximity 



