HoRNKD Larks in the Province of Quebec 137 



little time for song-, usually confining his efforts to early 

 morning and late afternoon. So far as I have observed, the 

 female alone incubates, but at least the male assists in feed- 

 ing the young, and is very solicitous of its welfare. On one 

 occasion I almost stepped on a young Lark, when the male 

 bird jumped into the air as if to attack me. Returning to 

 his perch a few feet distant he stretched himself, head up 

 and horns raised, to such an extent as to resemble a Killdeer 

 Plover more than a Lark. On my retiring a few feet he flew 

 to the young bird and fed it. 



Perhaps earlv nesting Larks have more troubles to con- 

 tend with in raising their young than most birds. Late 

 snowstorms causing nest-abandonment have been previously 

 mentioned, but they have other enemies. At the time incu- 

 bation is completed many birds of prey have arrived, and 

 considering that the smaller migrants present are compara- 

 tivelv few, the- Larks are bound to receive considerable at- 

 tention. Possibly predacious animals also take their toll, 

 although, happily, I have nO' records. The protectively- 

 coloured backs of the adult Larks, with the highly developed 

 watchfulness of this species, keeps them fairly safe from 

 enemies that both soar and creep. It is the young that suf- 

 fer : of four nests under observation in one locality, during 

 the spring of 1915, onlv in one instance did the young safely 

 leave the nest. One of these, found April 11, and revisited 

 on April 17, contained broken egg-shells on the latter date, 

 and apparently had been trodden on by some animal. 



Another bird safelv hatched her young- and reared them 

 until they were almost ready to leave the nest. On April 25 

 the well-spotted feathers, wind-blown in every direction, were 

 all that remained of this brood. This was probably the work 

 of a low-lying Marsh Hawk, which' I had several times 

 seen diligently hunting in the vicinity. 



Another nest containing a single egs^ on April 25 was 

 abandoned for some uexplained reason. The fourth nest, 

 found commenced on April 5 (a mere hollow, with no nest 

 material) contained three eggs on the 11th and four on the 



