302 ICTERID^ : AMERICAN STARLINGS. 



land being its favorite home ; it is also found in the 

 salt marshes as well as the fertile tracts of the interior. 

 Any suitable stretch of grass-land may have its pair 

 or its colony of meadow larks, making very sweet 

 idyllic music during the season of exultation. Great 

 tenderness, almost pathos, is expressed in the liquid, 

 sympathetic voice of these faithful creatures and de- 

 voted parents. The saddest and most reproachful 

 strains which birds have ever poured into m}- ear were 

 uttered for days in succession from a Meadow Lark 

 whom I had deprived of his mate and his home during 

 his brief absence. Not knowing what had become of 

 them, he called so incessantly, with such sad surprise 

 at no answer, such mournful beseeching and lamenta- 

 tion, that it made my heart ache. 



Tbe nest is made in such situations as I have de- 

 scribed, on the ground, usually at the foot of a tuft of 

 grass or low branching weed, which serves to conceal 

 it ; furthermore being often built over, so that there is 

 an incompletely globular structure, with the entrance 

 at one side. The eggs are laid late in May and in 

 June. They are four to six in number, from i.oo to 

 1.18 in length by 0.70 to 0.90 in breadth ; pure white 

 in ground color, finely and pretty evenly dotted and 

 sprinkled all over with bright reddish-brown surface 

 marks and lilac shell-spots. The male is tireless in 

 his limpid minstrelsy, delivered from the convenient 

 fence-post or nearest tree-top, while his mate is busy 

 in the grass, and the scene of the Lark's summer 

 home is one of rare rural felicity, as sweet as the fra- 

 grance of new-mown hay. Later in the season, when 

 the flocks make up, the gentle, confiding disposition 

 gives way to shyness and reserve ; flocks scoui" the 



