Prairie Horned Lark. 13 



It will thus sustaiQ itself in the higher regions for many 

 minutes, and even hours, rising and then sinking with 

 song on its lips, and at times work its way gradually over 

 the underlying area for more than a mile, until suddenly 

 an impulse directs it, and with closed wings it drops head- 

 foremost with the velocity of a falling arrow. Straight 

 toward the earth it drops unresistingly, until we imagine 

 that it will surely dash itself against the ground, when it 

 quickly spreads its wings and turns abruptly in a hori- 

 zontal course, flying in a gently undulating manner where 

 its fancy leads, usually stopping at the side of its mate. 

 I know of nothing more thrilling in the habits of our 

 inland birds than this fearless leap of the horned lark 

 from a height of many hundreds of feet directly to the 

 surface below. 



It has been said that these birds rarely alight elsewhere 

 than on the ground. This feature of their habits has led 

 the boys of the farm to style them "groundbirds." In 

 the fall I have seen small flocks of five or six alight upon 

 the telegraph wires along a railroad near a pond, to which 

 they were resorting for water. There they would sit and 

 utter their lisping twitter, one or two occasionally taking 

 a short turn around the pond; after their return others 

 would imitate their actions, somewhat like swallows in 

 late summer. In winter I have seen them perched on the 

 higher edge of the sloping roof of a feed-shed, where the 

 yard below furnished them a desirable supply of scattered 

 grain and other refuse matter. 



Nidification with these hardy larks begins early, the 

 melting of the snow in February and March disclosing to 

 them suitable nesting sites. The early nests are usually 

 situated in hollows along the sheltered sides of shallow, 

 open ravines, knolls, and hillsides, preferably along south- 

 ern slopes open to agreeable sunshine. Later nests are 

 oftener found in more open situations in pastures and 

 corn-fields. The site is commonly a slight depression, 

 sometimes beside a tuft of grass or a projecting clod. The 

 materials used in a nest are dried grass and root fibers, and 

 it is sometimes lined with thistledown. The eggs are gray- 

 ish or light green in color, marked irregularly with various 

 shades of brown. The number in a set varies from three 



