THE PACIFIC HORNED LARK. 219 
delirium of unfettered bliss do off about six miles in twice as many minutes, 
with a Horned Lark, flying low, as the invariable object of his chase. When 
to such conditions as these was added the scantiness of cover, one marveled 
indeed that the daffy Horned Lark still persisted upon his ancient heritage. 
Yet on the rith of April (the earliest record by far), in the barest of it, 
we marked a deep rounded cavity which Mr. Bowles declared belonged to the 
Streaked Horned Lark. Returning on the 27th, we found that the hole in 
the ground had _ be- 
come a bump in- 
stead. The bird, 
grown callous amid 
the impending evils, 
or else frankly in- 
tending to warn off 
trespassers, had filled 
the cavity full to 
overflowing, and had 
erected upon its site 
a monumental pile 
visible at a hundred 
yards. So zealous 
had the bird’s efforts 
been that the crest 
of the nest stuck up 
two and a half inches 
above the  close- 
cropped landscape, 
and the bottom of 
the nest was above 
the ground. This 
creation was quite 
ten inches across, 
Taken at South Tacoma. Photo by Dawson and Bowles. 
while it included THE NEST ON THE GOLF LINKS. 
upon its skirts bits 
of sod, cow-chips and pebbles,—a motley array, possibly designed to distract 
attention from the dun-colored eggs which the nest contained. The most 
lavish display of this sort of brumagem marked a runway of approach, offset 
by a corresponding depression upon the other side. The nest was composed 
chiefly of dried grasses and weed-stalks with soft dead leaves, and was lined, 
not very carefully, with grass, dried leaves, and a single white chicken-feather.? 
a. A near view of this remarkable nest was forbidden by the breaking of a negative. 
