140 



THE OSPREY. 



QSPREY'S nest at SAN CLEMENTE ISLAND, 

 PHOTOGRAPH BY HOKACE A. GAYLOKU. 



But, as the impulsive "whittle" clearly shows, nci^ldcUi can- 

 not long or well restrain his emotion or his passion. Tiring 

 of his serener mood, he springs into mid-air, crying " screep- 

 a-rip-ple-rip ! ! " with such an intensity of passionate abandon 

 that one wonders whether he be merely abroad on a drunken 

 frolic, or whether he be telling an unheeding world that he 

 has just made the love-conquest of that demure gray one for 

 whom his heart has long been longing. Sometimes, at this 

 song, one inclines to the bacchantic theory, for the ribald 

 song, in variance, becomes: " Take-a-lit-tle-sip ;" or, again, 

 the tipsy tempter cries "Jehu, jaa-hu, drink-a-little ! " 



Again, the hearer inclines to the theory of love-making, for 

 the would-be-sociable wooer pleads "I want-to eat-with- 

 you ! " (and sometimes the words he utters are naughtier than 

 these). 



But there are prophets, too, among the tribe — and sombre 

 prophets they. Athwart the revel, they exclaim, "Jehu, 

 jaa-////.f'-deeds-are-evil ;" or, quite as often, with a 

 more despondent tone of general depreciation, simply 

 ' ' Deeds-are-evil !" And there are other notes of warn- 

 ing, as dark, as mystical, as wailing, as the lamen- 

 tations of the ancient prophets. Thus grave meets 

 gay with bold, yet sad, rebuke; and so "from grave 

 to gay," from gay to grave, do bird life and bird-song 



singers. But one dominant characteristic of the 

 Meadowlark songs in question should be clearly set 

 forth here ; for therein, I am sure, lies a large part of 

 the peculiar fascination that these songs exert ; and 

 that characteristic is: a marked articulateness. Atten- 

 tive to this trait, and giving somewhat of wing- 

 freedom to his fancy, the listening ornithologist comes 



to feel that there is an interesting humanness about ru" the gamut of human joys and griefs and sins and 



HCi:;lccta; that many of the emotions, and many of the sorrows. 



temperamental traits of humankind, cheerful or sad. In turning, with real reluctance, from the songs of 



winning or sinister, are reproduced within that little nc^^h'cta, one cannot but speak— and speak quite con 



feathered soul. nniore — of her delicate eggs and the dainty nest. To 



In the main, the bird has a singing language of his mingle useful fact with pleasant fancy, I turn to my 



own. Apart from his unintelligible rhapsodies that data-files and review the data— some laconic and 



are executed in mid-air, with a passionate phrensy of some delightfully circumstantial, as data ever are— 



wing-beating, just before the love-mad singer slides for some of the sets of Meadowlark in my collection, 



down, longspurlike, "upon the scale [ladder] of his Set 5-5 was taken at Macon, Michigan, on May 6 



own music," there are many vocables that one de- (incubation begun); nest, beautifully arched, of rather 



lights to trace upon paper. Of all these Meadowlark- fine grasses, was found "on ground, in meadow" 



language songs one of the sweetest is that which is The eggs are of the blotched type so characteristic of 



sung throughout the summer, in the bird's quieter the Eastern bird. 



moods Hear him on bush or fence. Set 15-4 was taken at Tarpon Springs, 

 the much-flirting tail quite still for the Florida, on April 11 (incubation ad- 

 nonce, the head tilted, as ever, half- vanced). Nest "composed of grass" 

 heavenward as he sings: "Heery- , (for a wonder). The eggs of this set are 

 heedle-heera-sy-wheedle." Hear him ' rarely beautiful, each being capped with 

 again — but more restrictedly — during a scrawled and blotchy nucleus of deep, 

 the early breeding time, and in equally rich brown. 



contemplative mood, as he chants atop These two sets and a series of singles 

 the highest telegraph pole : " Heap-ter- ; comprise my modest representation of 

 a, reach-a-da, 70/ii/l/c" Of this three- '■ eggs of the Eastern form. All are, as 

 membered song, the first portion seems might be expected, of the heavily- 

 inconsequential, prefatory ; the "reach- marked type. 



a-da " is penetrating, beautifully clear i Of the negUcla sets, one was taken at 



and tonal (and is the only portion that ^ I Pasadena, Cal., May 5 (incubation be- 



isheard at a distance), the "whittle" |^ jiA gun). Nest " in a barley field 



being non-tonal but intensely explosive; if&frili IIwmBi ^'^'^ ^ ^"'^^ °^ tunnel under the grass 



as if the singer were conscious of hav- J^HH^^^^Hf leading three feet from the nest." An- 



ing rendered a charming song, and were jigj^HgHJ^^^^^^^^^^B other is from Sonoma, Cal., taken June 

 telling his near neighbors, with a most j^Hj^^^^^^^^^^^^H 16, no incubation, probably a second 

 emphatic sort of "whew!" just how HHEBHiilHIH^BI set A third California clutch was taken 



proud he feels about it ! Yellowstone ospkey nest, by Mr. Allen "in a hole in the ground, 



