woods. The woods were (^peii. to be sure, but the surroundings were loUdly 

 unHke those which the lark seeks in its Northern summer home. 



The horned or shore lark is another common bird oi the open prairies. 

 There are two varieties, the horned lark proper, and the prairie horned lark. 

 Both of the birds occur in the Middle Western states. They sing on the wing, 

 but their notes, while not absolutely unmusical, have but little to commend them 

 to the ear. With one exception, my experience with these larks has been that, 

 aj)art from the breeding season, they go in small detached flocks. The one 

 exception was the sight of a flock of the birds flying above a great field about 

 sixty miles south of Chicago. I don't dare venture to give an estimate of the 

 number of individuals in the gathering. The old comparison of the swarm of 

 gnats is too weak to hold. No flock of blackbirds that I have ever seen equaled 

 in size this gathering of the larks. The birds were constantly going to the ground 

 in mass, and then rising again in a sc^rt of hovering flight Every lark in the 

 vast concourse was singing its twittering song. It was the last week in March, 

 and l)efore three weeks had passed the birds had separated and many of them 

 were nesting. On April 15th I found a nest containing five eggs on the ground 

 within a few feet of a pool of water, the surface of which was frozen. I flushed 

 the lark from the nest, and after taking one fleeting glimpse at her egg treasures, 

 I went hastily away. The bird was back covering the eggs before I had gone 

 a distance of ten feet in my retreat. I low the horned larks, building as early as 

 they do, manage to bring up such a numerous progeny in the face of perils of 

 frost and flood is beyond my wit to explain. 



The prairie-chickens and the quail are still abundant thrDughont the Middle 

 West. In some of the states good laws have resiilted in an increase in quail 

 numbers, and the prairie-chickens in many sections fairly may be said to be 

 holding their own. These birds live veritably in the shadow of death. They 

 are shot ruthlessly, and yet they have learned to match their own cunning against 

 that of man. They are in very truth game birds, and one cannot scrape acquaint- 

 ance with them on the same terms wnth which he meets the robin and the blue- 

 bird. Nevertheless, that walk afield in the cool of the evening will lack much 

 when the whistle of r>ob-\\"hite fails to come down the wind from the fence 

 post near the corn field. 



There are places in plenty on the (Irand JVairie where birds that are not 

 essentially field lovers make their homes. Along the tree-bordered streams, in 

 the trees of the village streets, and about the farm-houses may be found nearly 

 the whole range of songsters, with the woodpeckers, the flycatchers and the rest. 

 It was while on an outing for the ])ur|)ose of getting nearer the hearts of the 

 prairie birds that T had an interesting experience with the members of a birrl 

 family, that I was going to say wouldn't know a prairie if they saw it. I stayed 

 for a month in the early summer in a little \illage on the (Irand Prairie. I lived 

 during my stay in what was half hotel, half farm house. At one time in the life 

 of the proprietor it was his determination to ha\e his place as hotel-like as cir- 



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