9© J>^E3TS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



After the foregoing was written, I was favored by Mr. Thos, 

 S. Roberts, of Miimeapolis, Minn., with so very interesting a 

 letter concerning this bird's habits in his region, that I feet 

 bound to spare space for its full insertion : 



Muineapolis^ JSIinn.y Oct. 19, 1878. 

 Deak Sill : — 



During the earh part of winter the shore-lai'ks leave this lo- 

 cality ; but just as soon as warmer suns and milder days lay bare 

 patches of lirokcn ground here and there, a few of the most 

 venturesome return. This is occasionally in the latter part of 

 January, but usually in February. Once having come thev are 

 not easily driven l)ack. and brave man\ a hea\ y snow-storm and 

 arctic wind. During such seascjus of severe weather the\ gain 

 their subsistence along the roads, and seem to enchne life rather 

 than to enjoy it. Their spring-like song sounds sadly out ot^ 

 place with the thermometer ten or fifteen degrees below zero. 



At the first appearance of real spring weather, the larks be- 

 come more numerous, their singing more frequent, and the 

 love-making begins. By the time the sun's rays liave gained 

 sufficient power to melt the snow from southern exposures, a 

 few of the most eager birds have arranged matters and are look- 

 ing about for a suitable building site. This is usually selected 

 in some bare, exposed spot, on the prairie or in an al)andoned 

 field, where a nest would seem the least likely to be placed ; no 

 sheltering dead weed or tuft of grass is sought, but instead a 

 place where the nest will be protected by its very openness. 

 One of these early nests I found on April 4, 1S77, while there 

 was still much snow on the ground. It was on the southern 

 slope of a little knoll, where the surface had thawed out twa 

 inches or so deep. A cup-shaped cavity had been scratched in 

 the earth, in the midst of some old cow-manure ; as yet only 

 the rim and upper part of the nest had been completed, the 

 bottom and lower sides being merely modelled. One bird, 

 evidently the female, was at work upon it, Mdiilc the other sat 

 near by singing. On the morning of April 7. the nest was 

 completed and contained two eggs ; 011 th^- 9th. four eggs were in 



