EASTERN MEADOWLARK 65 



they pant violently in order to control their temperature. Sometimes 

 they leave the nest, but return after being fed. 



By the eleventh or twelfth da} r the birds normally take their final 

 leave of the nest, although if molested they may desert it as early as 

 the eighth day. Feather growth of the wing tracts has proceeded 

 sufficiently by the eleventh day to allow the nestling to fly, in case 

 flight is necessary. However, the newly departed young meadow- 

 lark seldom takes to its wings during the first few days except to make 

 short jumps in the grass. The young are fed by the adults for a period 

 of at least 2 weeks or longer after they leave the nest. Their food 

 call is a loud bisyllabic tseup, tseuj), and it is by these notes that they 

 are located and fed by the adults. The second nest may be started 

 within 2 or 3 days of the desertion of the first one. While the female 

 is building and laying she continues to feed the first brood, but when 

 the second incubation is begun the male assumes the major part of 

 the work of caring for the young of the first brood, which are about 

 3 weeks old at this time. 



Gradually they learn to catch insects for themselves and become 

 more and more independent. When they are able to shift for them- 

 selves, they are apparently chased out of the territory by the male. 

 They probably do not travel far before September, when they acquire 

 their first winter plumage. 



Four birds taken from a nest when 8 days old were raised in cap- 

 tivity by G. B. Saunders. Since they were given long hours of 

 freedom in their native fields, their development and habits were 

 similar to those of wild juveniles. On the fifteenth day they all 

 took dust baths, fluffing and shaking their plumage as adults would, 

 Following this exertion they drank heartily from a basin of water. 

 On the sixteenth day they began prying into the soil with their bills, 

 which marked the inception of the boring habit which is so typical 

 of the adults. On the seventeenth day they began to stand high 

 on their legs and to hold bodies erect whenever they heard a sound 

 which startled them. On the twentieth day one was observed to 

 take a thorough bath in the water, after which he spent several 

 minutes in a systematic dressing of his plumage, during which he 

 apparently used his oil gland frequently. On the twentj-second day, 

 two of the four began feeding for themselves; before that Saunders 

 had been feeding each bird about 175 grasshopper nymphs daily. 

 On the same day one of the two that had begun feeding themselves 

 gave a rolling chatter very similar to that uttered by the adults. 



Plumages. — Jonathan Dwight, Jr. (1900) gives the following 

 description of the plumages and molts: 



Juvenal plumage acquired by a complete moult. Above, clove-brown, the 

 feathers broadly edged with buff pplest on the nape, those of the back having 



