Meadow Lark. 15 



MEADOW LARK. 



The warmer breezes and brighter sunshine of April 

 daily add to the wealth of color in the landscape, and also 

 evoke the best performances of the meadow musicians, 

 among whom the loud, mellow piping of the meadow lark 

 proclaims its leadership in the meadow chorus for April. 

 Scattering its melody over our open districts, the only 

 well-known bird that sings from the ground as well as 

 from higher situations, the meadow lark is truly typical 

 of the great prairies which it has doubtless frequented 

 since the advent of civilization. It inhabits the eastern 

 United States and British Provinces, its northern limit 

 being from fifty-three to fifty-four north latitude. Its 

 western limit is the edge of the Great Plains. It winters 

 from the Middle States southward, perhaps regularly 

 south of the thirty-eighth or thirty-seventh parallel. 

 Occasional winter residents are reported in localities 

 north of the given limits. 



Before the winter-browned carpet of the meadows, 

 which form an excellent mimicry of the plumage of its 

 upper parts, has been brightened into green by the reno- 

 vating touches of spring, before the yellow rays of the 

 dandelion unfold in rivalry of the rich yellow upon its 

 breast, the meadow lark appears in our fields and pastures, 

 opening the season with its familiar song. In this locality 

 it is among the first of the songsters which herald the 

 advent of spring by their presence and melody. Not 

 many days do the robin and bluebird precede it, nor are 

 its rich notes less familiar to ordinary ears than are those 

 of the two species mentioned. It usually enters our lati- 

 tude in the night, and announces its arrival in the 

 morning from the ground, from hedgerows, telegraph 

 wires, fences, and even from trees and houses in villages 

 and rural neighborhoods. During the first two weeks of 

 April, the fields are resonant with the melody of the 

 meadow lark. Though essentially a bird of the rural 

 districts, at this season it occasionally enters the towns 

 and villages, and sings with delightful familiarity from 

 the tops of tall trees and other convenient situations. 



