134 NEWS FROM THE BIRDS. 



speak, and at the proper season nests are 

 easily found. The larks arrive quite early in 

 the spring, and sometimes in the latter part 

 of the winter, from their jaunt in the South, 

 In 1893 they came back about the middle of 

 February, but the present year (1894), for 

 some cause, they did not come so early. On 

 the third of March, which was an extremely 

 fine day, I took a long ramble, but did not 

 see or hear a single lark. The next morning, 

 however, when I stepped out into my back- 

 yard a little after daybreak, one of the first 

 sounds that greeted me was the piercing 

 whistle of the larks, as it came lilting across 

 the fields. 



What does that prove ? That the birds 

 must have come from some other locality dur- 

 ing the night. Some of them were doubtless 

 the same individuals that were here last year, 

 and the question is, how could they tell in 

 the night when they had arrived at the old, 

 familiar feeding ground ? Perhaps they timed 

 themselves, though, so that they would reach 

 this place just as day broke. At any rate, they 

 at once heralded their arrival with song, pro- 

 claiming to all whom it might concern that 

 they were back from their southern jaunt. 



The song of the meadow lark is very fine — 



