LARK BUNTING 653 



As reported by H. J. Cook (1947), lark buntings had arrived a week 

 earlier, but after the storm the migrants were not to be found. In his 

 words: 



We have immense numbers of Lark Buntings here each summer; when they 

 migrate in the spring and fall very large flocks are in abundance. I had seen 

 such flocks here for a week before this storm hit. On June 1 Mrs. Cook and I 

 drove to Lusk, Wyoming, and back. I have never seen such a lack of bird life 

 in this region, even in the lead of winter. Coming back in the afternoon we 

 counted the birds we saw along the highway in that 55-mile drive over the high 

 country of Nebraska- V.'yoming borderland, near the headwaters of the Niobrara 

 River. Instead of the thousands of Horned Larks and Longspurs normally along 

 this road, we did not see a living bird of those two species. Instead of 

 the numerous flocks of migrating and scattering Lark Buntings, we saw just 23 

 individuals; all but 3 of these were males and were widely dispersed, one to three 

 in a place. 



* * * Dead birds are everywhere. 



The extent to which the lark bunting is imposed upon by the cow- 

 bird has not been accurately determined. J. A. Allen (1874) described 

 the lark bunting as one of the favorite foster parents of the cowbird. 

 In a series of 18 nests that he examined, five contained cowbird eggs; 

 two of them contained two cowbird eggs and one contained three 

 At the same time in 29 nests of other ground-nesting prairie birds 

 not one cowbird egg was found. Strangely, Friedmann (1963) notes 

 only a single subsequent record, a parasitized set of eggs taken in 

 North Dakota, June 9, 1963, and now in the Carnegie Museum. 



Cameron (1913) has noted that lark buntings were often numerous 

 around the nesting sites of Swainson's hawk in Montana. Occasionally 

 when this hawk could not obtain its favorite food (frogs, grasshop- 

 pers, and mice), it attacked the lark bunting. Since no other species 

 of bird was taken, Cameron concluded that the color of the male lark 

 bunting and his soaring habits render him particularly conspicuous 

 and vulnerable to attack. He reports collecting one female Swainson's 

 hawk whose stomach contained an entire lark bunting and describes 

 one unsuccessful assault as follows: 



I have only once myself seen a Swainson's Hawk in pursuit of a flying bird, 

 although such a chase must not infrequently occur when the hawk is famished or 

 ground game is scarce or absent. In this flight, at any rate, the hawk acquitted 

 herself with considerable dash, and, so far as I know, has added a new record to 

 the hitherto published history of the species. During August, 1909, I saw the 

 female of the pair of Swainson's Hawks which had been under observation, and 

 whose young had then flown, make a determined swoop at a Lark Bunting on the 

 ground. The quarry crouched under the lowest wire of a protecting fence, and 

 there was no wind to aid the hawk which was obviously so hungry that her valor 

 overcame her discretion. The consequence was that she just missed the bird but 

 collided with the fence, and, losing her balance, fell over. The terrified bunting 

 was the first to recover its wits, and justified its name by soaring straight upwards 

 like a true lark before it flew swiftly away. To my great astonishment the flustered 



