BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



Alaska hermit-thrush has stolen away Hke a fleeting shadow, 

 and the kinglets have betaken themselves with all their light- 

 heartedness to the pines of the north. But in their places have 

 come the lark-finch and the swallows, the black-headed gros- 

 beak and the warbling vireo. 



On one of these fair April days, when the linnets are sing- 

 ing their loudest from the tree tops and the green-backed gold- 

 finches, resplendent in their spring attire, are busy with their 

 love-making, we may observe on some fence post by a country 

 road the lark-finch, contentedly singing his humble ditty. He 

 is a strikingly marked bird, with individual characteristics which 

 enable the novice to distinguish him with but little difficulty 

 from his fellows of the sparrow family. Probably the first 

 peculiarity about him to attract the observer is the unusual 

 pattern of the head-markings. A line of white extends from 

 the bill down the back of the head, bounded on each side by a 

 strip of chestnut or blackish, which in turn is bordered with cm- 

 other white streak, just above the eye. A fine line of black is 

 next below this, while on the white throat is also a streak of 

 black, less sharply defined, however. Thus the entire head 

 has the effect of a succession of black and white streaks, which, 

 together with an irregular black spot on the breast and a series 

 of white edgings on the tips of the dark tail-feathers, make this 

 otherwise plain grayish brown and white bird very easily 

 recognized. 



There are to me none of the fond associations of former 

 days about the lark-finch — none of the home ties to warm the 

 heart when it returns — but when I hear the high, busy chatter 

 of the swallows, and see them wheeling in clear-cut circles 

 about the eaves where of old they have nested, an untold flood 



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