Meadow Lark. 19 



forms and voices of the meadow larks for whole days. 

 It seems that they hide closely ia the grass tufts and 

 other convenient shelters, silent in the great midsummer 

 transition which so sensibly affects the voices of the birds. 

 When disturbed in their seclusion they rise silently and 

 flutter away for a -distance to drop into their coverts. 

 From the middle of August they are gregarious, ten to 

 fifty individuals associating in a meadow, where they feed 

 on the grasshoppers abundant at that time. Through 

 September and October they are loudly melodious for 

 about two hours after sunrise, reminding the listener of 

 the first mornings after their coming in spring. They 

 mate frequently at this season, and in their persistent 

 gallantry one individual can be observed pursuing another 

 in rapid flight, the leader dodging upward and sidewise 

 in a. manner quite foreign to the ordinary deportment of 

 these staid birds, until both dart suddenly into the grass, 

 or one disappears in the herbage and the other flies to a 

 perch on the hedge or fence. About the 1st of November 

 they leave this section, retiring to their winter home 

 farther south. 



Few of our avian friends, either of the meadow, or 

 bushes, or dooryard, evince such strong attachment to 

 Mother Earth as our sturdy meadow lark. The prairie 

 horned lark will frequently tower cloudward for hours at 

 a time, slighting the inviting face of its friend and pro- 

 tector below ; but the meadow lark only mounts to the 

 summits of the trees in his neighborhood, trembling un- 

 easily on his perch as if impelled always to return to his 

 natural sphere. The chipping sparrow and the field 

 sparrow, other so-called " ground birds," are occasionally 

 allured by convenient situations to forsake the sheltering 

 lap of earth and place their hairy cots in bushes and 

 trees, but the meadow lark never loses his implicit trust 

 in her protecting care, and only in her grassy nooks does 

 he think of secreting his treasured home. On the bosom 

 of earth he crouches yet closer to pour into her ear his 

 eloquent plaint. In her sheltering arms he nestles through 

 the shades of night, cozily enwrapped in a favorite tuft. 

 In her lap he finds the morsels that satisfy his frugal 

 wants or the gratification of his stronger desires j indeed. 



