22 



THE OOLOGIST. 



bation period, and on looking about 

 for something soft and within easy 

 reach, the leaves of the tree in which 

 the bird is perched on and which is 

 generally the home tree or very near 

 to it, is the first thing that presents it- 

 self. 



Thus it is that a nest in a hemlock 

 tree is lined with hemlock twigs, in an 

 oak with oak leaves, and as the maple 

 tree's leaves are very small at this 

 time, they are disregarded and re- 

 placed by cedar bark and the like. 



This is the experience that I have 

 had with the birds in my section and 

 I don't doubt that this habit of lining 

 the nest with green leaves varies in- 

 dividually and geographically, but as 

 far as the birds having any sense of 

 the beautiful, I am inclined to think 

 that, that belongs to a higher level, 

 which the bird has not reached. 

 L. BROOKS, 



Milton, Mass. 



The Mexican Horned Lark. 



(Otocoris alpestris chrsolaema.) 

 There was a time, not more than 

 four or five years ago, when I was not 

 acquainted with this plentiful resident 

 of Southern California hills and val- 

 leys, but since I have come to know it 

 better, it has risen considerable in my 

 respect, until I have come to regard it 

 as one of the most interesting mem- 

 bers of the avifauna of the south- 

 west. 



Small and gray-brown is its dress, 

 flu- Mexican Horned Lark is seldom 

 seen until one almost steps upon it, 

 crouching in the (load grasses of the 

 mesa, or flushes it excitedly from some 

 well hidden nest, planted squarely in 

 the place you would never in the wide 

 world think of looking for it. I remem- 

 ber seeing the nest of one of these 

 birds — at least it was the nest of one 

 of the ground larks, and I suppose of 

 this species — while I was on my trip 



through Death Valley some three years 

 ago. In this part of the desert there 

 is a cactus which grows in the form 

 of small rounded heads. Its method 

 of multiplying itself is for the young 

 plants to come up from the root of 

 the old one and in a perfect circle 

 round about it. As soon as the young 

 attain any size the mother plant dies 

 down, thus leaving an empty space 

 in the center of the miniature wall of 

 heads. In such a place as this, I 

 found the nest of one of these birds, 

 composed almost entirely of hair gath- 

 ered from the stables where the mules 

 belonging to the borax companies 

 were kept. Nothing could possibly get 

 at them, as it was with the greatest 

 difficulty that I reached down and 

 lifted out the nest and one addled egg 

 (the time was November), which it 

 contained. 



All around on the desert floor bands 

 of the birds played and chirped in 

 the glorious fall weather that over- 

 lies all the southwest desert each year 

 — probably some of them had been 

 hatched from this nest — and in the 

 nesting season, they must be even 

 more plentiful here than on the sea- 

 ward side of the range where there 

 are plenty of them, to say the least. 



In nesting on the settled slopes of 

 the west, the larks usually seek the 

 higher mesas, though some few breed 

 each year in the alkali plains that 

 border the sea coasts Such birds as 

 have been living for years in the low- 

 lands seem to be lighter in color than 

 those of the hill regions. This may 

 be only imagination, tor I never shot 

 any of these little fellows, or it may 

 well be that the years among the 

 alkali Hats may have so dusted their 

 coats that they remain whiter than 

 those that dust themselves in the pul- 

 verized 'dobe of the upper slopes. 

 Sometimes one of these larks makes 

 up her mind to occupy some vineyard 

 or orchard, and selects the hollow at 

 the base of a vine or tree for her 



