The Oregon Naturalist. 



Vol. IV. Palestine, Oregon, May 1897. No 5. 



A Reverie. 



Whether at walk in the glowing sunshine, 



With green carpet 'nearh my feet; 

 Or seated down in shady nook, 



With a tree-trunk for my seat, 

 While the birds to me their stories tell 



And the air is with fragrance sweet. 

 Is there ought where man doth dwell 



That can with this compete ? 



Arthur M. Farmer. 



The Imported and Acclimated 



German Song Birds in 



America. 



BY C. F. PFLUGFR. 



THE SKYLARK. 

 ALANDA AVENSIS, DIE PELDLERCHE. 



Of these useful and lovel}- song 

 birds 50 pairs were introduced into 

 Oregon by the Society in 1889 and 

 1892. They were let loose at the fol- 

 lowing places: Upon Ladd's tract of 

 land in East Portland south of Haw- 

 thorne Ave., near McMinnville; near 

 Milwaukee and Molalla in Clackamas 

 County, and in the Waldo Hills at 

 Judge Waldo's farm in Marion Coun- 

 ty. They have increased wonderfully 

 since their introduction, and can be 

 heard and seen at the proper seasons 

 of the year upon most all the meadows 

 marshy and bottom lands in Oregon. 



Within the last five years it has 

 been observed that they regularly re- 

 turned from their winter migration 

 during the month of February, for 



they were seen and heard upon the 

 Ladd tract in East Portland as early 

 as that and during that month. 



It has also been observed that with 

 the return of the Skylarks, the Song 

 Thrushes and Starlings make their 

 appearance. 



The Skylark is a native bird of the 

 old world. It frequents meadows, 

 plowed lands end clover fields, wheat 

 fields and plains. It is a bird of pas- 

 sage, leaving in large flocks in Octo- 

 ber, and returning from their migra- 

 tion at the beginning of Febiuary. 

 Of all birds of passage it is the ear- 

 liest in its arrival. The male is seven 

 inches in length, of which the tail 

 measures almost three inches. The 

 beak, as in all birds of this species, is 

 soft, straight and conical. The man- 

 dibles are of the same length, the up- 

 per is a blackish brown, tlie lovAer 

 white. The iris is grayish Iirown: the 

 feet also grayish brown, with a tinge 

 of yellow in the Spring, and are some- 

 what less than an inch in height; the 

 hinder claw, or spur, is longer than 

 any of the others. The forehead and 

 poll are rusty yellow, longitudinally 

 spotted with blackish brown; and 

 when the bird is excited the feathers 

 occasionally erect themselves into a 

 crest. The cheeks are grayish brown 

 and encircled by an indistinct whitish 

 gray line, which passes between the 



