J^ehraska Ornithologists' Union 87 



forth from the place like an exploding bomb-shell and scat- 

 tered in four difi'erent directions, leaving behind them a 

 sinj,'le infertile egg. 



The nests of these sparrows are usually placed on the 

 ground in the shelter of a tuft of bunch-grass and art? 

 built of grasses and lined with finer plant fibers and root- 

 lets. One of the nests I found was so arranged that the 

 bare ground formed part of the lining, so thin was the in- 

 ner construction. The eggs are short-oval and rounded, 

 white in color, frequently tinged with pale blue, and are 

 spotted more or less generally all over with reddish-brown. 



The song of the Western Grasshopper Sparrow, heard 

 most frequently during the nesting season, is a cheery 

 "pittuck-zee-ee-ee— -" which is given from some elevated 

 perch. A yucca pod on its slender stalk is a favorite posi- 

 tion and thence may come the little insect-like trill with 

 more or less steady persistence through the heat of the 

 day, often when all the o1her birds are silent and seeking 

 the cooler shades of the plant growth. The call note is a 

 weak reiterated "pit" and is heard frequently as an ex- 

 pression of anxiety concerning the nest. It is also heard 

 commonly in the late sunmier when often the only times 

 you see the birds are when you flush them from under 

 foot. 



85. Chondcstes grammacus strigatus Sw^ainson — W e s t e r n 



Lark Sparrow. 



The prettily marked Western Lark Sparrows were, 

 with the exception of the AVestern Field Sparows, the 

 commonest birds of the region. They occurred every- 

 where from the open hills to the river bottoms, nesting 

 on the ground in the valley and on the hillsides facing 

 it, and on one occasion even in the hay filling of a wind- 

 break in the nursery beds on the Reserve, four feet from 

 the earth. Sometimes the nests were in the protection 

 of a low bush or plant but often they were in the open, 

 a little hollow in the ground lined with grasses, root- 

 lets and hair from the cattle and horses on the range. 

 The eggs, four in number in most cases, were laid in 

 the latter part of May and June. May 31, 1912, I 

 found a nest which was without eggs at that time ; 

 several days later it contained three eggs, but still 

 later it was empt}^ and the nest partly torn up although 

 there was nothing to indicate how the eggs had disap- 



