130 



THE OOLOGIST. 



here, seemingly nesting in colonies of 

 from five to a dozen pair. 



The first nest I found, I noticed the 

 bird as she flew round — that she seem- 

 ed nervous. I stopped and she would 

 fly round me in a crescent shaped or- 

 bit, about 20 feet above the ground 

 and nearing the ground at each end. 

 I being the center. She would fly first 

 to the left of me and then to the right 

 until about even with me on eacli side. 

 Then back around through the air 

 three or four times, describing this 

 semi-circle, finally rising; but all the 

 time keeping about the same distance 

 from me. Occasionally she would 

 alight at one or the other end of the 

 crescent and walk around through the 

 grass, occasionally picking at small 

 weeds or objects. She repeated this 

 several times. Occasionally, however, 

 she would soar over the place where I 

 finally discovered the nest, with her 

 wings and tail outstretched after the 

 manner of the song flight of the male. 

 I finally backed away and she lit near 

 the center of this semi-circle not over 

 ten feet from where I had been stand- 

 ing in the grass, and gradually slip- 

 ped and sneaked through the grass 

 and disappeared. I waited a few min- 

 utes, and going forward, flushed the 

 bird. The nest was in an open situa- 

 tion midway from where I was stand- 

 ing and the center of the curve of her 

 crescent shaped flight. It was on 

 high, dry ground amid wild prairie 

 grass, sunken into the soil where 

 there were very small prairie shrubs 

 on different sides of it. The nest was 

 made of old dry grass, and of course 

 I saved it. 



At the second nest discovered, there 

 were no small shrubs around it, but 

 in lieu thereof there were several tall 

 weeds ten or twelve inches high, and 

 last season's grass stems. The last 

 above described nest was found on a 



rolling hill side just North of the 

 Catholic Cemetery and almost within 

 the corporate limits of Regina. 



Still another set I found close be- 

 side this last set. All of them were 

 found within what I supposed was the 

 corporate limits of the city of Regina, 

 a town of some seven or eight thous- 

 and. 



The birds seemed plentiful in this 

 vicinity, the blaclv breasted males 

 were continually in sight and singing 

 or scolding or both. They seemed in- 

 terested in the actions of the females 

 as they flew round me, and sometimes 

 accompanied them on such flights. The 

 males were more fearless than the fe- 

 males. They have two song refrains, 

 one somewhat similar to the song of 

 the Meadow Lark, though of course 

 much weaker; and the other similar 

 to that of the Bobolink, but both 

 much inferior to the real thing. 



Both the male and the female have 

 a churriug or rattling, scolding ser- 

 ies of notes. In all three of these 

 nests the eggs were very much incu- 

 bated. 



I found the other unfinished nest of 

 this species at this place. 



Strange. 



On July 22, 1909, I was crossing a 

 hay field and found a nearly grown 

 bird, some specie of the Horned Lark, 

 which could fly about twelve to fif- 

 teen feet at a time and examined it to 

 see if the mower or rake had done any 

 harm. This bird had received no in- 

 juries, but a little ways on I found 

 another of a siimlar size and examin- 

 ed it for the same reasons. There 

 were no legs or wings minus, but it 

 contained a pus sac. The loose skin 

 on its thighs on the under side had 

 small holes and through them I pulled 

 out seven maggots. 



I felt something under the skin be- 



