The Oregon Naturalist. 



Vol. IV. Palestine, Oregon, October 1897. No 6. 



THE WESTERN MEADOW- has been observed to Winter on the 



LARK. coast and in Vanconver Island. 



o. /, , . I first made the acqnaintance of this 



iiturneiuJ via^-na ?ifsriecfa. . . , . , , 



interesting bird on the morning of the 



Near the village of gangly on the fifth of May at Carberry in Central 

 lower Eraser, B. C, on the 13th of Manitoba. I had arrived at the sta- 

 May, 1891, I first noted this species tion there late on the previous even- 

 as a member of the avifauna of Brit- ing. and leaving the more settled 

 ish Columbia. It was tliere in full parts of the village, directed my way 

 song and vSpring plumage, and towards the residence of my nephew, a 

 though seeding was then in progress, short distance out, when I found my- 

 yet clover was being cut so that this self walking on the first piece of vir- 

 species, which is one of the earliest of gin prairie that I had ever trod. 

 Spring migrants and in some in- There alone I stood and took a hur- 

 stances a Winter resident, was then ried glance around me. The air was 

 probably incubating, or may have wintry and the scenery of the mid- 

 bad young in the nest, as most of the night sky .so much further north than 

 nests that I saw of other birds in that I had ever viewed it before made a 

 country already contained )'Oung; melancholy impression on my mind 

 though it was evident that the. smaller as 1 thought of my distant home, but 

 birds had not yet begun to nest. I I was soon among friends and slept 

 did not notice this species in any other peacefully till the advent of a new 

 part of the province that I visited, but day. 



it is not a bird of the .seashore, the Next morning I was early out view- 

 woodland, the hills, the rocky canyon ing my strange surroundings, and 

 ot even of the recent settlement, but it strolling over parcels of yet unbroken 

 loves the broad meadows, the level prairie. The air was very cold, and 

 pa.stures and the wide rolling prairie the heavy frost glittering on the gra.ss 

 and in such places from the opening cau.sed rather unjileasant sensations, 

 of Spring till the close of Autumn it butthebrightsunshiiiegavepromi.se 

 may be seen, and heard in more or of a warm day, and my ears weie 

 less abundance, and through all of greeted by the cheery song notes of a 

 this period is more or less a .song.ster. number of birds, .some of which I rec- 

 In .some parts of British Columbia it ognlze as the voices of old, familiar 

 is an abundant summer resident and friends. But the .song of one .species 



