LARK BUNTING 639 



the Lark Bunting has deserted Iowa and Minnesota in the main as 

 a nesting bird. A stray pair now and then nests in northwestern 

 Iowa, but the main nesting area has now been pushed back roughly 

 from a line west of Lincoln, Nebr., through Norfolk, Nebr., to Yank- 

 ton, S. Dak., to about Sisseton, S, Dak. There still would be a few 

 nesting on this line and it would not be improbable east of the line." 



Although the lark bunting has disappeared from parts of its breeding 

 range, its propensity to wander carries it far from its usual haunts in 

 migration. It is not at all unusual for the lark bunting to appear, 

 sometimes in goodly numbers, in southern California in late winter 

 or spring, or to visit nearby Nevada and Utah, but its occasional 

 appearance in Oregon, Ohio, Virginia, Massachusetts, Quebec, and 

 New Brunswick represent a rare ornithogical reward for the alert 

 observers who have recorded it so far from home. 



In addition to somewhat irregular movements during migration, 

 the lark bunting shows some tendency to fluctuate greatly in abun- 

 dance in given localities from year to year. The species apparently 

 shows no great attachment for any particidar nesting grounds, and 

 may be abundant one year in a given area and uncommon the next. 

 Tout (1902) has suggested that the lark bunting is more abundant 

 in dry than in wet years. Its variation in numbers from year to 

 year has led many local people to associate good crop years and even 

 the best planting times with the abundance of lark buntings. Thus, 

 Gerbracht (1944) writes of the species in North Dakota: 



Their arrival means settled warm weather, and everything subject to frost 

 may be planted safely. * * * We get our corn ground ready, and then wait 

 for the buntings to appear * * *. And it always proves to be the pick of the 

 season, better than either earlier or later. 



* * * The buntings seem to know whether the season will be propitious or 

 otherwise. If they arrive in great numbers and every fence and weed stalk is 

 hanging full of them, and the air from the first streak of daylight until after dark 

 is full of their song, and they immediately start housekeeping, we know that 

 they know a good season is ahead, and there will be plenty of everything for both 

 us and them. But if their numbers are scanty and they are mute and uneasy, 

 apparently unsatisfied with the prospects and disappear in a few days, we know 

 the season will be poor and the harvest meager. 



In "good" years the lark buntings are indeed abundant. Pettin- 

 gill and Dana (1943) estimated that, in driving the 275 miles from 

 Brooking, S. Dak., to the edge of the Badlands on June 2 and 3, they 

 saw roughly 4,125 lark buntings on or within the fence paralleling 

 the road. 



Spring. — From its winter home in northern Mexico, and less com- 

 monly in southern Texas, southern New Mexico, and southern Arizona, 

 the lark bunting begins its northward migration in early March. 

 However, it wends its way northward so slowly that it does not 



646-737— 68— pt. 2 4 



